A hearing is scheduled today for the state?s highest court to determine how Carroll voters will elect five commissioners in November.
“Nothing like this hasever happened in Maryland,” said Dana Dembrow, a former delegate and the original plaintiff in a lawsuit against the county Board of Elections.
The Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments from two men who argue that the Carroll County Circuit Court shouldn?t have chosen a map delineating voting districts without public comments.
In their brief, Joe Getty, a former delegate and districting member, and James Harris, a retired contractor of Westminster, said they favor a map Carroll?s state delegation failed to pass in the General Assembly this session.
But Dembrow, a lawyer from Gamber, said Circuit Judge Michael Galloway?s April 19 decision to use another map endorsed by the districting committee and mayors was in line with voters? wishes.
As of Wednesday evening, seven Republican commissioner candidates had filed in addition to incumbents Perry Jones and Dean Minnich, according to the Board of Elections.
After the state legislature failed to codify a district map in the last legislative session, the county Board of Elections announced it would hold elections at large.
Dembrow said he filed a lawsuit against the Board of Elections in an effort to uphold a 2004 referendum in which voters decided the number of commissioners should expand from three to five members using districts.
The Board of Elections is accepting commissioner filings using the map Galloway recommended.
The deadline to file for the commissioner race is July 3.
