Soon, the people will speak! For those of us who follow politics, this month and next marks the time when the citizens again get to send a message to Annapolis, along with our local county jurisdictions as well as Washington, by voting for the men and women who will represent us in the executive and legislative branches of government in Maryland, in some of our local county boards and government agencies, and in Congress in Washington, DC. Marylanders will also be voting on two amendments to the Maryland Constitution.
Fortunately for us in Maryland, this year we are not experiencing some of the confusion associated with new voter ID laws in other states that have been the subject of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings. So while our voting procedures in Maryland remain pretty much the same, it is worth remembering that this year, voting will be different for many of us because of changes in legislative districts. Redistricting occurs regularly in the wake of the census that is required every 10 years by the U.S. Constitution and reflects changes in the population. Many Marylanders will be situated in a new federal or Maryland legislative district with new boundaries from the previous 10 years. Many of us will be considering candidates for office that are not familiar to us.
With the amount of information circulating about voting procedures (including information about polling places and early voting or absentee voting before Election Day) and various candidates for office, it can be daunting to get trustworthy information to make an informed decision. Of course, we have the world wide web, local newspapers, television, radio, and numerous letters and brochures from the candidates themselves. For accurate information on voting procedures, a sample ballot, and your individual polling station, the Maryland Board of Elections and its local affiliates in individual counties maintain excellent websites that can be easily navigated.
For specific information on candidates and their positions on various issues, we can rely with confidence on the very old-fashioned but helpful paper publications produced by the League of Women Voters. These pamphlets are widely distributed and easily accessible at your local library or by contacting the League.