It's the Law

A few commenters’ on my recent post about the stench emanating from the petition drive to overturn CB58 have suggested that somehow the rules of the game were changed to derail the effort and marginalize a citizen’s right to petition the government.

The rules were not changed. The law governing referendum petitions was in place before this effort was even contemplated.

The Maryland law is quite clear:

Section 6-203. Signers: information provided by signers.

In general. – To sign a petition, an individual shall:

sign the individual’s name as it appears on the statewide voter registration list or the individual’s surname of registration and at least one full given name and the initials of any other names; and

include the following information, printed or typed, in the spaces provided:

the signer’s name as it was signed;
the signer’s address;
the date of signing; and
other information required by regulations adopted by the State Board.

That seems pretty straightforward to me. If Marc Norman and his union buddies were not aware of the law it doesn’t mean that they weren’t bound by it.