Maryland Forward Party

cc: Zan Ready

On Monday, August 12, Teresa Woorman was sworn in to be the next Delegate for Maryland’s 16th District, replacing Delegate Sara Love. Delegate Woorman received a whopping 14 votes. Yes, you read that correctly, 14 votes. The 14 votes did not come from “we, the people.” Instead, the votes came from a committee. Now, the surprise here isn’t that she bypassed the votes of the people, but rather that this practice of appointing politicians for filling vacancies is ubiquitous all throughout Maryland.

Maryland has a big and serious problem with appointments right now in our State Legislature. Nearly 50 seats in our current General Assembly makeup are filled because they were initially appointed by committees, rather than being elected by the people. That is 1 in 4 seats in our State Legislature that are not being elected by the people! As mentioned before, Delegate Woorman was appointed to fill Delegate Love’s vacant seat after she resigned to be appointed to Senator Kelly’s vacant seat. Senator Kelly had been appointed to fill Senator Lee’s seat, who resigned to serve as Maryland Secretary of State (Sears et al., 2024). While this is a blatantly absurd chain of appointments, it's understandable that appointments are meant to maintain stability in the legislature by avoiding prolonged vacancies, high costs associated with special elections, and ensuring that key positions remain filled. But nonetheless, when politicians are appointed, such as in the aforementioned story of delegates and senators playing musical chairs with different seats, rather than being elected, their actions are not accountable to the district’s constituents they are representing, but to the committees that hand picked them. It comes off as, "we know this person is what’s best for you; trust us.”

How do we solve this problem? Other than appointments, a common and widely used method for filling a vacancy, which is used by many other States across the country, is with a special election. We use special elections here in Maryland in certain localities, just not with the highest legislative body in the State, for some reason. However, there has been some movement in the General Assembly within the last few years to rectify this problem.

In the recent 2024 Legislative Session, several bills had been introduced to either reform and impose certain rules on how central committees should fill future vacancies, or outright establish special elections to fill future vacancies. Our Vice Chair of the Maryland Forward Party, PJ Benenati, attended the Legislative Session to give testimony in support of the several bills relating to vacancies, special elections, as well as ranked choice voting. You can read more about our attendance here: Maryland Forward Party Advocates at the General Assembly

Frustratingly and unsurprisingly, none of those bills were passed. SB140 and HB412 died in its respective committees, while SB29 and HB347 passed out of its chambers, only for both bills to be never heard by the other chamber.

Special elections invite the people to partake in the democratic process to resume having their voices heard and represented for the remainder of a term. This isn’t without any downsides. The reality about special elections, however, is that “they're untimely, expensive, have low turnout when compared to general elections, are sometimes chaotic affairs that bleed the taxpayers, and confuse and exhaust voters” (Panetta, 2022). In July 2024, it was announced that “a special election to fill a vacant at-large Prince George’s County Council seat could cost an estimated $1.3 million…and that is just the cost of running the election – it does not include expenses such as printing ballots and training about 400 election judges who will be needed” (Ford, 2024).

Is there an alternative to these two, or a possible middle-ground? There is, actually! It’s called a Citizen’s Assemblies, think jury selection but for politics, where a stratified sample of a district’s people come together and elect someone to fill a vacancy. This method can solve the issue of having unelected representation, while avoiding the high tax payer costs that come from special elections. Learn more about Citizen’s Assemblies in our post: Appointments or Special Elections? There Is a 3rd Option

So, we’re left with three options: appointments, special elections, and citizens assemblies. Appointments are quick but undemocratic, as they bypass public input. Special elections are democratic, giving people a voice, but they’re often slow and costly. Citizens assemblies combine the strengths of both, offering a more timely and cost-effective solution. But what’s your take on these approaches, especially about the idea of citizens assemblies? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.

References:

1. Panetta, G. (2022, September 18). Special elections are confusing, chaotic messes that bleed taxpayers - and could often be avoided if politicians quit before leveling up, flaming out, or dropping dead. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/special-elections-congress-vote-alaska-gerontocracy-2022-9 

2. Ford, W. J. (2024, July 8). Prince George’s county special election cost estimated at $1.3 million, and counting. Maryland Matters. https://marylandmatters.org/2024/07/08/prince-georges-county-special-election-cost-estimated-at-1-3-million-and-counting/ 

3. Sears, B. P., Ford, W. J., & Kurtz, J. (2024, August 12). Woorman sworn in to House seat, Ivey’s seat already being eyed, other moves. Maryland Matters. https://marylandmatters.org/2024/08/12/woorman-sworn-in-to-house-seat-iveys-seat-already-being-eyed-other-moves/