Building Wicomico Forward

Question 3 is the last statewide item on your ballot. It is a constitutional amendment that takes the rules off Maryland's congressional map. Ross is voting Against it, and here is why.

1. 1

   It removes the rules and puts nothing in their place.Today the Maryland Constitution says districts must be compact, connected, and drawn with regard for county lines and natural boundaries. Question 3 says those rules apply only to state legislative districts, and that nothing in the Constitution sets any standard for congressional districts. No new standard replaces them.

2. 2

   The Eastern Shore is the map they want to redraw.District 1 is the one congressional district that keeps the Shore together. Reporting on the amendment says the map that follows a yes vote would split the Eastern Shore into two districts drawn from across the Bay. Wicomico would go from having a seat of its own to being a slice of someone else's.

3. 3

   There would be no referee.In 2022 a court threw out a gerrymandered congressional map by applying the rules that Question 3 now removes. Take the rules away and there is nothing left for a judge to apply. The redraw would come in the next General Assembly session, with one party holding the governor's office and veto-proof majorities in both chambers.

The wording on the ballot is hard to read. The Supreme Court of Maryland made the state rewrite it because the first version was misleading, and the rewrite is still a mouthful. In plain English:

• A vote FOR lets Annapolis redraw the congressional map with no rules.
• A vote AGAINST keeps the rules in place.