HB1448: Municipal Elections Transparency

Favorable · Government, Labor, and Elections Committee · March 4, 2026
Written testimony by Andy Ellis, Green Party candidate for Governor

Full Title: Municipal Elections - Information on Candidates and Voting Procedures and Locations
Sponsor: Delegate Tomlinson
Crossfile: SB 848 (Senator Gallion)
MGA Page: HB1448

Testimony as Submitted

Maryland has 157 municipalities. They hold elections on different schedules, in different years, under different rules. Some hold elections in May. Some in November. Some in odd years, some in even years. Each municipality sets its own candidate qualifications and filing deadlines. There is no central place where a voter can find out who is running for office in their town or where to cast a ballot.

State law already requires municipalities to report election results to the State Board of Elections for publication on the SBE website. Voters can look up who won a municipal election after it happens. They cannot look up who is running before it happens. That is the gap HB 1448 closes.

The bill requires two things. First, municipalities submit candidate qualifications to SBE at least six months before the filing deadline. Second, within one week after the filing deadline, municipalities submit the list of qualified candidates and information on how and where to vote. SBE publishes both on its website immediately. The Department of Legislative Services fiscal note confirms this costs nothing. SBE can implement it with existing resources. There is no material impact on local government finances.

This matters for any candidate who does not have a party organization behind them. A Democrat or Republican running for town council can rely on their county party to tell voters an election is happening. An independent or first-time candidate with no political connections cannot. When voters do not know an election is happening, incumbents win by default. When voters cannot find out who is running or where to vote, the people with existing name recognition and organizational support have an automatic advantage.

Municipal government is where small parties build a governing track record. Nationally, 158 Green Party members hold elected office across 22 states. Nearly all serve at the municipal level — city councils, select boards, school committees, mayoral seats. 77 Greens have held the office of mayor since 1991. That base was built one local race at a time, in towns where voters knew an election was happening and could find the candidates on the ballot. When that information is invisible, the path from local office to legitimate political party narrows to the point of disappearing.

Municipal elections already have the lowest turnout of any level of government. Nationally, around one in five or fewer eligible voters participate in off-cycle municipal races. These are not small, obscure places. Frederick has 78,000 residents. Gaithersburg has 69,000. Rockville, Bowie, Hagerstown, Annapolis. Each runs its own elections with its own rules. Consolidating pre-election information on the SBE website will not solve low turnout by itself, but voters who want to participate should be able to find that information in one place.

Transparency is the lowest barrier to entry in democratic reform. This bill does not change who can run or how elections are conducted. It makes sure voters know who is on the ballot and how to participate. That is the minimum a functioning democracy should provide.

Our campaign platform includes municipal reform as a core element of grassroots democracy. We support policies that make local government more transparent and more accountable to residents. HB 1448 does exactly that. It takes a reporting framework that already exists for election results and extends it to pre-election information. The infrastructure is already built. This bill puts it to use.

I encourage this committee to provide a favorable report on HB 1448.

Andy Ellis is seeking the Green Party nomination for Governor of Maryland. He and his running mate Owen Silverman Andrews are the only active statewide candidates using Maryland's Fair Campaign Financing Fund.

Related

Campaign: Multiparty Democracy

See Also: HB0496: Open Primary Elections · HB0499: Ballot Petition Modernization