Montgomery residents seeking a repeal of a controversial law guaranteeing civil rights for transgender people urged Maryland’s highest court Monday to uphold a ballot initiative certified by the county board of elections.
But gay and transgender rights advocates said the initiative violated state law, and urged the court to toss it.
Last month, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert Greenberg ruled that the ballot vote could legally proceed, despite problems with the number of voters who signed the referendum petition.
Greenberg said he agreed with the gay and transgender rights group Equality Maryland that the Montgomery County Board of Elections erred when it used the number of active voters, rather than a higher threshold number of registered voters, to determine how many signatures were needed to force a vote over the law.
He ultimately found, however, that Equality Maryland had waited too long to challenge the matter, saying it should have brought up the issue after the first round of petition signatures was submitted in February.
Attorney Jonathan Shurberg, representing Equality Maryland, contested that claim before Maryland’s Court of Appeals Monday.
Shurberg asked the high court: “Are we supposed to run around every day saying ‘I wonder who did this wrong or that wrong?’”
Montgomery Board of Elections President Sam Statland acknowledged efforts to challenge the new law “may not have been posted on a Web site,” but said Monday it was unlikely people were unaware of attempts to overturn the measure.
“With the number of people collecting petitions and media coverage of this — to say people didn’t know about it … it was kind of obvious,” Statland said.
Montgomery County Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg asked Board of Elections members in a previously scheduled meeting Monday to explain how the public is expected to learn of petition-gathering efforts.
“There is no vehicle, aside from what we read in the papers,” elections director Margaret Jurgensen said. “The current statute in Maryland state law in regards to petitions is very inadequate. It needs to be addressed by the state legislature.”
Many opponents of the new law believe it would allow men to access women’s restrooms, despite language that prohibits extending the measure to personal and private facilities.
Attorneys for both sides said Maryland’s high court is expected to rule this week on the issue since November ballots must be certified Wednesday.
