Opponents of the new early voting law have filed a lawsuit in Annapolis asking a judge to reverse decisions by state elections administrator Linda Lamone and the state elections board blocking part of their petition drive to put the issue on the November ballot.
In court papers, the lawyers for Tom Roskelly and Marylanders for Fair Elections argue that Lamone and the board relied on erroneous opinions of the state attorney general in rejecting their petitions for a referendum on a 2005 bill providing for early voting.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who supports the petition drive, vetoed the bill, and the legislature overturned his veto in January, but AssistantAttorney General Mark Davis said that the petitions needed to be collected last June.
Roskelly said, “This ludicrous interpretation is wrong, wrong, wrong” since the vetoed bill was dead until the legislature?s override revived it in January.
The lawsuit also contends that Lamone unfairly rejected signatures they had submitted in a timely fashion, and didn?t accept signatures that the post office delayed delivering.
A spokesman for the state Democratic Party described the lawsuit as another attempt “to suppress the vote,” but Roskelly denied the charge.
“We do not oppose early voting per se, but we do oppose early voting without proper safeguards,” Roskelly said.
A judge?s ruling could come as soon as Friday when the rest of the signatures in the petition are due.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
