Court Rules Maryland Redistricting Amendment Must Go on Ballot
Will this let voters rightfully have the final say on their maps or are judges rewriting rules to lock in one-party rule?
Above: Voting Pikesville, Maryland on June 23. Image credit: Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
The Spin
Democratic narrative
Marylanders deserve the final say on how their maps get drawn. Republican-led states spent the past year ramming through gerrymanders at President Donald Trump's request and gutting the Voting Rights Act, so unilateral disarmament makes no sense here. Question 3 belongs on the November ballot, where voters — not partisan lawsuits — settle the question.
Republican narrative
Democrats blew past legal deadlines and skipped required procedures, then got a court to rewrite their own ballot language for them — that's judges acting as the legislature. Despite negative polling, Democrats are determined to erase the last Republican House seat and lock in one-party rule that silences more than a million Marylanders.
