Question 3 Would End
Free Elections in Maryland

A message from State Senator Chris West

On November 11, 1776, Maryland patriots adopted the new State’s first Constitution and Declaration of Rights. It vested in the citizens of Maryland the right to “free elections” as “the best security of liberty and the foundation of all free government.” For 250 years, our Declaration of Rights has continued to guarantee to Maryland citizens the blessings of free elections. Free elections are the very foundation of our liberty and our democratic form of government.

Question 3, which will appear on the ballot this fall, asks the voters to give up their right to free elections and to cede to Democratic Party majorities in the Maryland General Assembly the power to so rig our future congressional elections that the winners will be known long before the first vote is cast. But Question 3 is written in intentionally misleading language so as to trick the voters into giving up their vested rights to free elections.

The actual amendment to the State Constitution referenced in Question 3 explicitly states that the Declaration of Rights will no longer provide criteria for congressional district boundaries. Thus, if Question 3 is passed in the upcoming election, the “free elections” requirement will no longer apply. Democratic Party majorities in the General Assembly will have carte blanche to engage in gerrymandering on steroids when drawing congressional district lines in order to ensure that these elections will no longer be free but rather rigged from the outset.

But in order to disguise what is afoot, in a party-line vote in both houses of the General Assembly, Democrats prescribed the precise language that must appear on the ballot informing the voters what Question 3 will do, if passed. The language never even mentions the Declaration of Rights. The voters are not informed that if they pass Question 3 they will be giving up a right to free elections that has stood for 250 years. Instead, they are told that Question 3 would have the effect of merely “clarifying” the law.

Question 3 does not merely clarify the law; it literally upends the law. Instead of “free elections,” future congressional district lines will be drawn behind closed, locked doors by Democratic political operatives working for the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly. There will be NO criteria. Crazy lines will be drawn with a single goal in mind—to ensure that Democratic candidates will win all eight congressional districts.

Here’s what could happen: The two cities of Salisbury and Cumberland could be put into the same congressional district even though they are 250 miles from each other. This is because the current requirement that districts be contiguous would be eliminated by the proposed amendment. Districts could be drawn that look like dinosaurs, steam locomotives, or Frankenstein monsters. This is because the current requirement that districts be compact would be tossed overboard by the proposed amendment. Maryland’s absurdly gerrymandered districts will become the laughingstock of the nation.

And if the voters are successfully deceived into voting in favor of the proposed amendment and then come to realize that they’ve been tricked into giving up their right to free elections, will they have any recourse? The answer is an emphatic “NO.” In Maryland, there is no right to collect signatures on petitions to put a proposed corrective amendment on the ballot. The only way our Constitution can be amended is if the Party controlling the General Assembly votes in favor of such an amendment. Of course, once the Maryland Democratic Party secures the right to rig congressional elections, it will never give it up. No corrective amendment will ever be placed on a future ballot.

Therefore, if Question 3 passes in this fall’s elections, Annapolis Democrats will FOREVER be able to engage in ruthless gerrymandering to ensure that Maryland NEVER elects another Republican or independent to Congress. There will never be another Mac Mathias or another Helen Bentley or another Connie Morella or another Marjorie Holt.

Democrats claim that we need to pass Question 3 to send a message to Donald Trump and to counteract Republican gerrymandering in other states. But Trump will be dead in a couple of years, and other states will evolve over time. Maryland, by contrast, has had an overwhelmingly Democratic General Assembly for my entire lifetime (76 years and counting!), so Question 3 will not merely be a temporary answer to shameful conduct by President Trump and Republicans in other states but rather a permanent license to a single political party to engage in unconstrained gerrymandering.

Democrats also claim that elections will remain “free” in that voters will be able to go to the polls and vote. But just like in Russia, where voters are able to go to the polls and vote, the elections will be rigged so that the only candidates with a chance of winning will be the candidates sponsored by the State’s dominant political party. That’s what gerrymandering does—rig elections so that the winners are never in doubt.

Marylanders have always valued democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The vote on Question 3 this fall will test whether we still hold those principles dear to our hearts. Defending them begins at home.