The decision on how the Carroll County Commissioners will be elected this November has turned into a political Ping-Pong match in the legal system, but the game is one step closer to ending.
The Court of Special Appeals is expected to set a hearing date as soon as next week.
First Dana Dembrow served a lawsuit against the Board of Elections when it announced the election would be at large after the county delegation failed to pass a district map.
Carroll Circuit Court Judge Michael Galloway returned with the decision, allowing voters to elect commissioners according to a certain district map.
Then Joseph Getty and James Harris joined the game by filing appeals.
Harris, a retired landscape contractor from Westminster, said the judge should have selected another map.
But different motives drive Dembrow, a former Montgomery County delegate, and Getty, the policy director for Gov. Robert Ehrlich and a former Carroll County delegate.
Dembrow said he wants to preserve the 2004 referendum. The voters indicated that they wanted to expand the board of commissioners from three to five members and have them elected by district.
Getty said a decision was reached among the county Board of Elections, Dembrow and the judge ? “in the judge?s chambers without an open hearing” ? and that the Board of Elections should accept filings from candidates running at large.
“It?s not my decision to make it at large, but legally, that?s the position we are in now,” he said.
An at large election, where voters select from candidates running countywide instead of ones within the particular district where the voters live, goes against voters? wishes, Dembrow said.
“I find this very offensive, because no matter what side you are on, you have to respect the will of the voters,” he said.
The Board of Elections is accepting candidates using the court-approved map.
