No challengers have stepped forward to contest the five voting districts for Carroll County ? at least not yet.
The deadline to appeal last week?s Carroll County Circuit Court decision is 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, said County Clerk Larry Shipley on Monday.
So far, residents Christopher Eric Bouchat, 5627 Woodbine Road, Woodbine, and Charles William Cull, 50 Blue Swallow Court, Westminster, joined incumbent Perry Jones in the race for commissioner Monday, said Donna Frotton, election data specialist for the county Board of Elections.
The five-day appeal allotment, which started after the ruling Tuesday and includes only weekdays, is shorter than the typical 30-day appeal for other suits because it follows a special state-election code, said County Attorney Kim Millender.
“If someone would appeal, it would bypass the special appeals court and go directly to the appeals court” in order to save time, she said.
Del. Donald B. Elliott, R-District 4-B, who preferred the map decided on in the lawsuit, said he was “pleasantly surprised with the court?s decision” because he wanted a map that, unlike the other option considered, did not divide Taneytown, New Windsor, Union Bridge, Hampstead and Manchester.
Delegation chairman, Sen. Larry Haines, R-District 5, on the other hand, said he isn?t satisfied with the outcome of the district-map debate. He blamed Democrats for not passing the map bill in Annapolis.
The defeated map would have “benefited the citizens of the county and protected agriculture,” and the redistricting geography that has been adopted “splits Sykesville and Finksburg,” he said.
The county?s state delegation proposed a map that would have split several municipalities and made South Carroll into a single district.
The deadline for residents to file their candidacies for county offices is 9 p.m. July 3.
