Voter Suppression Efforts in Maryland
Jan Plotczyk • April 13, 2021
After intense scrutiny of the 2020 election — including audits, recounts, and court cases — there has been no evidence uncovered of widespread or systemic fraud in all of the United States. The expansion of mail and early voting put in place because of the pandemic is being widely hailed as successful and without major problems. Despite all this evidence to the contrary, however, most members of the Republican party and leadership maintain that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Because of this unsubstantiated claim, extremist state legislators are attempting a fix. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal-leaning law and justice institute at New York University, as of late March, Republican legislators had introduced 361 bills to tighten voting rules in 47 states.
Most of these restrictive bills take aim at absentee voting. Nearly a quarter seek stricter voter ID requirements. State lawmakers also aim to make voter registration more difficult, cut back on early voting, and expand voter roll purges.
The three states that have garnered the most publicity with voter suppression legislation are Georgia, Texas, and Arizona, but Republicans in Maryland also introduced legislation in the 2021 legislative session that would have made it harder to vote.
Citing a need to address election fraud, Maryland Republican lawmakers introduced bills concerning absentee ballots and voting, penalties for voter fraud, and proof of identity at the polls. GOP leaders, citing “major deficiencies” in the 2020 election, said they want to restore the public's faith in Maryland's democratic process and build public trust in the state’s election system.
Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) says his party is concerned with the integrity of the 2020 election, and that it’s incumbent upon legislators to make sure the public has a high level of confidence in the election process. He claims that Republicans are not trying to suppress the vote, but just want to ensure that there is integrity in the election process.
“We want a balanced approach where we have access and safeguards and it’s a well-run election process,” Simonaire said. “We will support that, but we don’t support the one-sidedness of it without safeguards.”
Sen. Stephen Hershey (R-Kent, Queen Anne’s, Cecil, Caroline) says there needs to be ballot signature verification in order to prevent disenfranchisement of correct and proper voters in cases of multiple ballots.
None of these six Republican-sponsored bills that the Brennan Center classifies as voter suppression legislation made it out of committee, and most did not get a committee hearing.
Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, said “A lot of the [Republican] bills aim to address issues that don’t actually exist here in the state.”
On the other side, according to the Brennan Center, 843 bills with expansive voting provisions have been introduced in 47 states. More than a third of those bills address absentee voting, while more than a fifth seek to make voter registration easier. State lawmakers are also focusing on expanding access to early voting and restoring voting rights to people with past convictions.
Democratic lawmakers in Maryland introduced 20 bills to improve access to voting in the 2021 session, echoing the national trend of three times as many expansive bills as restrictive.
Maryland’s voting-expansion bills address early voting and polling places, mail-in voting, creation of a permanent absentee voter list, voting rights of incarcerated and released people, and time off for employed people to vote. According to Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery), sponsor of several of the bills, many of the bills address successful practices from 2020 that lawmakers want to codify into law.
The expansive bills that have come up for a vote have had little to no support from Republicans. According to Del. Eric Luedtke (D-Montgomery), sponsor of several of the bills, a significant number of members of the minority party have voted against every expansive bill, using their unsubstantiated voter fraud argument as a justification.
Del. Wayne Hartman (R-Wicomico, Worcester) thinks that mail voting should not be expanded. “I don’t know how there’s not an opportunity for somebody who wants to vote, to vote in person,” he said.
So Maryland Republican lawmakers are no different than their counterparts across the country. They are attempting to reduce access to voting by proposing measures that will have a disproportionate effect on groups who traditionally vote Democratic, in the hope that if enough of them stay away from the polls, Republicans can dominate.
Kenneth Mayer, an expert on voting and elections at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a New York Times article, “The typical response by a losing party in a functioning democracy is that they alter their platform to make it more appealing. Here the response is to try to keep people from voting. It’s dangerously antidemocratic.”
Luckily, in Maryland, this GOP tactic did not work.
Jan Plotczyk spent 25 years as a survey and education statistician with the federal government, at the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics. She retired to Rock Hall.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
