Maryland's Supreme Court Has One Day to Decide If Your Ballot Question Survives
Two judges say lawmakers broke the rules trying to redraw the Eastern Shore's congressional seat. Thursday, the state's highest court rules, hours before ballots go to the printer.
Here's a sentence you don't read every day: on Thursday morning, seven judges in Annapolis will help decide whether roughly 1,200 versions of Maryland's November ballot get printed with an extra question on them, or without one.
That might sound like a scheduling problem for the State Board of Elections. It's not. It's about whether Maryland voters get a say this fall on redrawing the congressional district that covers Queen Anne's County and the rest of the Eastern Shore, the only one in the state currently held by a Republican.
FIRST: WHY CAN'T LAWMAKERS JUST REDRAW THE MAP THEMSELVES?
Maryland's constitution already spells out rules for how legislative and congressional districts have to be drawn: compact, connected, and respectful of county and city lines. Courts have read those same rules to cover congressional maps too. That's part of why a federal court threw out Maryland's last congressional map back in 2022.
So if the General Assembly wants a different, looser rulebook for congressional maps only, a regular bill won't do it. Those standards are written into the constitution itself, and only Maryland voters can change the constitution. That's what Question 3 is. It isn't a new map. It's a change to the rulebook that decides what future maps are allowed to look like.
WHAT HAPPENED
In January 2026, Gov. Wes Moore's redistricting advisory commission recommended a new congressional map concept designed to give Democrats a shot at winning all eight of Maryland's U.S. House seats, up from seven. Moore, House Democrats, and national party leaders spent months pushing Senate President Bill Ferguson to get on board.
On Aug. 3 to 5, the General Assembly met in a special session in Annapolis. After roughly eight hours of House debate and three more in the Senate, lawmakers passed HB 2100, a constitutional amendment, with only Democratic votes. Gov. Moore signed it, sending it to voters as Question 3 on the November ballot.
If approved, Question 3 would state that the constitution's compactness and boundary-respecting standards apply only to state legislative districts, not congressional ones, freeing the legislature to draw a new congressional map before the 2028 elections without those constraints. It would also give the Maryland Supreme Court original jurisdiction over future lawsuits challenging congressional maps.
The target is no secret. The map floated by Moore's commission would stretch the Eastern Shore-based 1st District west across the Chesapeake Bay to pick up Democratic-leaning parts of Anne Arundel and Howard counties, connecting Ocean City to Columbia, while cutting out Republican-leaning Harford County. The 1st District is currently held by Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republican in Maryland's congressional delegation.
Two separate lawsuits followed almost immediately. In Anne Arundel County, Circuit Judge Robert J. Thompson ruled the General Assembly hadn't complied with state election law when it passed HB 2100, and found the ballot question's language, which describes the change as merely "clarifying" the constitution, intentionally misleading. He also found the amendment improperly bundles two different subjects, the redistricting rule change and the grant of original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court, into a single ballot question. In Dorchester County, Circuit Judge S. James Sarbanes reached a similar conclusion in a second case. Both rulings blocked Question 3 from appearing on the November ballot.
The state appealed both rulings. The Maryland Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, the same day the State Board of Elections is set to send ballots to the printer at the end of the day. Election officials expect a ruling before then.
WHAT SUPPORTERS OF QUESTION 3 SAY
Democratic legislative leaders and the Moore administration argue the amendment gives lawmakers clearer constitutional guidance for future congressional mapmaking, separate from the standards written for state legislative districts. They frame the special session as a response to mid-decade congressional maps already redrawn in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina at the urging of the Trump administration, maps that added Republican-favorable seats outside the normal redistricting calendar. In their telling, if other states can rewrite their maps mid-decade to gain seats, Maryland voters should get to decide whether their state can do the same.
WHAT THE LAWSUITS SAY
The Republican lawmakers and voters who brought the two cases argue Question 3 is a transparent attempt to gerrymander one House seat, Harris's, under the guise of a technical constitutional cleanup. They point to the "clarifies" language in the ballot question as misleading voters about what is, in substance, a rule change with real consequences. They also argue the amendment violates the constitution's single-subject rule for ballot questions by combining the redistricting standard change with an unrelated grant of jurisdiction to the state's highest court, and that the two-day special session didn't give the public the legally required notice before the vote.
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW YET
Whether the Supreme Court sides with the two circuit judges or the state, and whether that ruling comes in time to actually change what gets printed. If Question 3 is kept off the ballot, it's unclear whether legislative leaders would try again through a different process before 2028, or drop it for this cycle. And even if voters do get to weigh in and approve it in November, the actual new congressional map, and exactly how much of the Eastern Shore ends up in a different district, still hasn't been drawn.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Watch Thursday's oral arguments live at courts.state.md.us/scm/webcasts starting at 9 a.m., and follow local coverage for the ruling later that day.
- Read HB 2100's actual text for yourself rather than relying on either side's summary of it, so you know exactly what you'd be voting on if Question 3 survives.
- Confirm your voter registration is current at the Maryland State Board of Elections site well before November, since this case is a reminder that ballot fights can move fast and close to Election Day.
Read HB 2100's full text at the source, not just our summary of it.
Read the Bill Text →