Montgomery County voters won’t have a chance in November to overturn a new fee for ambulance rides.
Volunteer firefighters, the architects of a petition against the charge — which is now in effect — did not turn in enough valid signatures to put the referendum on the ballot, according to the county’s Board of Elections.
Those behind the grassroots push were bracing for Monday’s announcement, as new, stricter standards for verifying signatures on petitions made it nearly impossible to land the challenge on the ballot, they contend.
Local election officials verified roughly 13,000 signatures in the first batch of signatures submitted earlier this month. Firefighters needed to collect 15,366 valid signatures by Aug. 4 and a total of more than 30,000 by Aug. 19.
They have 10 days to challenge the ruling in circuit court, and Eric Bernard, executive director of the county’s volunteer firefighters, had vowed to contest any rejection of the signatures.
But backers of the fee say their opponents just have sour grapes.
“They’re legal requirements that they knew about going in,” said Patrick Lacefield, spokesman for County Executive Ike Leggett. “This is nothing they didn’t know; I’m sure part of the frustration must be with the inability of their paid petition-gatherers to follow the rules.”
Under a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling in Jane Doe v. Montgomery County Board of Elections, individuals must print and sign their name exactly as it appears on the voter registration list or provide their registered last name, full first name and initials for any middle names.
More than 50,000 signatures were gathered against the fee, the most for a ballot initiative in the county’s history, according to Bernard.
Under the ambulance law, patients’ insurance companies are charged between $300 and $800 an ambulance ride. Uninsured residents aren’t required to pay the fee.
Robin Ficker, who authored a ballot initiative that would impose term limits on elected leaders, says Montgomery election officials are manipulating the law — all in the name of fraud prevention.
He pointed to Anne Arundel County, where voters successfully placed a challenge to the state’s largest planned slots casino on the ballot this year despite the tougher standard.
“It’s not designed to prevent fraud,” Ficker said of Montgomery’s strict interpretation of the law. “It’s designed to make people jump through hoops that are unnecessary. It also makes election officials the handmaidens of politicians who want to control things.”
He expects a similar rejection of his ballot initiative in coming days.
