The Baltimore City Board of Elections and a local circuit court judge have blocked the efforts of transit advocates to seek support from voters for a regional transportation authority.
“A Baltimore Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of the Baltimore City Board of Elections, upholding the board’s decision to block a question about transit from appearing on city ballots this fall,” reports Emily Opilo in a paywalled article published by the Baltimore Sun.
“The [Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition], formed to advocate for the completion of the Red Line light rail that was canceled by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, had hoped to ask voters whether they wanted to establish a fund promoting ‘enabling legislation’ to create a Baltimore Regional Transportation Authority,” according to Opilo. [Previous Planetizen coverage of the Baltimore Red Line project.]
“The group submitted 14,145 signatures in favor of the proposed ballot question — more than the 10,000 required by law — but more than 4,400 were deemed invalid by city election officials,” reports Opilo.
The Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition argued that some of the signatures deemed invalid reflected errors on the part of the Baltimore City Board of Elections. The judge in the case decided that the coalition didn’t do enough to support its argument that signatures were incorrectly rejected.
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