85% of Marylanders demand special elections as house leadership risks reform  

ANNAPOLIS, MD –  Common Cause is calling on the Maryland House of Delegates to immediately pass HB 50, the ‘clean’, amendment-free version of SB 5, which would amend the state Constitution to require special elections when a seat is vacated by a member of the Maryland General Assembly.

Despite overwhelming public momentum for special elections, the House secretly attached a redistricting provision to SB 5 — a move widely viewed as a “poison pill” designed to stall the bill in the Senate. This maneuver threatens to kill the effort to finally end the practice of hand-picking legislative successors behind closed doors.

“For too long, legislative vacancies have been filled behind closed doors, leaving voters on the sidelines,” said Joanne Antoine, Common Cause’s Maryland Executive Director. “We have led a nearly 20-year effort to improve this process because Maryland residents have sent a clear message: they want the right to choose their representatives through special elections. The House of Delegates should remedy their mistake by immediately passing a clean special elections bill.”

Twenty-three percent of current legislators serving in the Maryland General Assembly were not originally elected to their seats. In polling released by Common Cause Maryland and Maryland PIRG, 85% of Marylanders favored having a special election to fill legislative vacancies.   

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