On Saturday April 5, the Maryland Forward Party delivered an open letter to the office of Governor Moore requesting a veto.  The Party didn’t take this action lightly. Where possible, we believe it's important to resolve competing ideas in a collaborative environment, where all opinions are heard and considered.  This is fundamental to the Forward Party; a new and rapidly growing national political party that is rooted in bottom-up collaborative problem solving, regardless of traditional partisan stance.  Maryland Forward Party had previously submitted opposition testimony for both the House and Senate companion bills and yesterday issued a letter to The Office of State Attorney General Brown's office, for their interpretation of the bill language.

House Bill (HB) 41 / Senate Bill (SB) 267 is a piece of legislation that recently passed both chambers in the Maryland General Assembly.  This bill was sponsored by House Ways & Means Chair, Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard), and Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Chair, Senator Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery) by request of the State Board of Elections.  The stated intent of this legislation is:

“Altering the time periods during which a petition for the formation of a new political party or additional signatures to a petition may not be filed; and prohibiting signatures submitted with a petition that was officially determined as not meeting certain legal requirements from being resubmitted with a subsequent petition.”