Elections board: Voter group waited too long to challenge city ballot question

State elections officials are asking the Supreme Court of Maryland to overturn a lower court ruling that would block them from counting votes on a Baltimore City ballot question, and could derail the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor area.

In a 63-page brief filed Friday, attorneys for the Maryland State Board of Elections said a group of city voters waited too long to challenge the ballot question, Question F, in court.

“The voters could have brought their challenge much sooner, because the Baltimore City solicitor drafted and certified the language of Ballot Question F on August 2, 2024, 37 days before the voters filed,” attorneys for the state board wrote in their brief filed Friday. “And the mayor and City Council enacted the resolution creating the charter amendment that the voters assail as inappropriate ‘charter material’ six months earlier, on March 11, 2024.”

The plaintiffs are a group of city voters led by Anthony J. Ambridge, a former Baltimore City Council member, who wanted to block a ballot question that, if approved by voters, would allow for the private redevelopment of Harborplace.




https://marylandmatters.org/2024/09/27/elections-board-voter-group-waited-too-long-to-challenge-city-ballot-question/