A renewed effort to expand alcohol sales beyond liquor stores has the backing of a powerful new ally — Gov. Wes Moore (D) told Maryland Matters that he “wants something on my desk at the end of the session.”

The General Assembly has tried before to allow alcohol sales in grocery stores — and perhaps other retailers. Moore said that while he will not make the bill an official part of his 2025 legislative package, his office will push for passage of a bill in the coming session.

“I think it’s time to address this issue because it’s something that I have heard literally in every single corner of the state from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore. From Oakland, Ocean City, Montgomery County and everywhere in between,” Moore said. “This is an issue that people are asking about.”

Supporters point to surveys that show overwhelming support for allowing such sales, which would bring Maryland in line with laws in Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. Besides being convenient for consumers, supporters see the change as an economic benefit, an employment and revenue generator for the state and a potential solution to food deserts.

Gov. Wes Moore (D). File Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

But opponents appear steadfast in their criticism of expanded alcohol sales, which they say will further burden communities that already suffer from a disproportionate number of licensed alcohol retailers, or drive mom-and-pop stores out of business.

“I know the Maryland families and small businesses that run the independent stores are going to be very disheartened to hear that the governor has sided with these big corporate supermarkets without even hearing from them directly,” said Jack Milani, owner of Monaghan’s Pub in western Baltimore County and legislative co-chair of the Maryland Licensed Beverage Association. “This is going to put some independents who put their life savings into their stores out of business, and you can bank on that.”

House Economic Matters Chair C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), long a critic of bills to expand alcohol sales, said that, “Overall, bringing a vice — i.e. more liquor — into my community is never a great thing.” While he understands the public support for expanded sales, and would welcome a discussion, Wilson said that anything that brings more alcohol into Black communities that “for decades, have just been punished by excessive amounts of liquor” remains a “grave concern.”

And it’s unclear if other lawmakers are ready to join the governor. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) said he is willing to consider a change, but that both sides need to come to a consensus and “at the moment I don’t see a path.”

The issue, he said, is protecting existing small business license holders while opening the door to competition to larger companies with greater buying power.

“The issue is the impact on small business owners in Maryland and not being overwhelmed by large corporate grocers,” he said.

Moore’s stance runs headlong into what has so far been an intractable debate, but he said it’s a debate that needs to end.

“I’ve asked my team, and I just continue to get, ‘This is the way it’s always been,’ and that is never a satisfactory answer for me,” Moore said.

Maryland ‘out of step’ with country

Maryland is one of five states, including Alaska, Delaware, Minnesota and Rhode Island, where it is currently not legal to buy beer, wine or liquor except in a liquor or packaged goods store, according to the Maryland Retailers Association, which backs expansion.

“We’re out of step with the rest of the country,” Moore said.

Maryland’s current law was implemented in 1978. At the time, some stores were already selling alcohol, including distilled spirits, and were allowed to continue to do so. Today, about 30 grocery or convenience stores continue to sell beer and wine and in some cases liquor.

Supporters say expanding the law would be widely popular. Online polls conducted in November for Blended Public Affairs found that 60% of respondents in Prince George’s County favored expanding the list of merchants who can sell alcohol, compared to nearly 30% who opposed the idea. In Baltimore County, 66% favored allowing beer and wine sales in grocery stores while 21% opposed. The polls have a margin of error of 4.9%.

“The support is absolutely there,” said Cailey Locklair, president of the Maryland Retailers Association.

“When you poll this issue, it is amongst the highest polling and support that I’ve ever seen,” Locklair said. “When you poll and ask people, ‘Do you want to be able to purchase beer and wine in a grocery store?’ it’s almost 80% of Marylanders across the board, demographically, age, sex, Democrat, Republican.”

The debate is not new in Maryland. Over the years, lawmakers have tried and failed to make a change, but supporters are approaching the 2025 session with renewed optimism.

Del. Marlon Amprey (D-Baltimore) was lead sponsor of a bill last year that would have let grocery stores buy existing licenses and then sell beer and wine only. While details are still being hammered out, he said he will sponsor a similar bill this year in the House. Sen. Cory McCray (D-Baltimore) said he will sponsor companion legislation in the Senate.

Food deserts and alcohol access

Amprey said his bill can alleviate food deserts in underserved communities, by allowing grocery stores to make the profit they need to survive.

Del. Marlon Amprey (D-Baltimore), will sponsor a bill that could allow grocery stores and some other retailers sell beer and wine. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

“I think the real thing this will help with is ensuring that those grocery stores in Black and brown communities and impoverished communities in those food deserts have a way to create a better profit margin so they can sustain themselves and keep fresh food available for those who need it the most,” he said.

Amprey said it would help grocery stores “with their bottom line, that they could have a higher profit margin and take some losses that happen in the first two or three years with fresh groceries. They can take on those losses because they’ll be able to sell beer and wine.”

Traditional grocery stores were not the only retail outlets that could have qualified to sell beer and wine under the 2024 version of the bill, which would have let stores with a minimum of 3,200 square-feet — about the size of a traditional convenience store — qualify for a license.

Amprey said he wasn’t prepared to discuss changes in the bill prior to drafting. He did say it was possible that one provision — requiring stores to buy existing licenses — could be replaced with another allowing for new licenses to be created.

But skeptics doubt that more liquor access can solve the problem of food accessibility in impoverished communities.

“Black and brown communities are statistically awash in greater volumes of alcohol,” said Raimee Eck, chair of the Maryland Public Health Association’s Alcohol, Tobacco & Cannabis Network. “They have greater access to alcohol, cheaper alcohol, and suffer greater harms from the alcohol that’s available in their communities.”

Eck said research shows that increased availability is linked to increases in violence and emergency room visits. Increasing alcohol density is “how you increase alcohol-related harm,” she said.

“There is absolutely no research to show that alcohol can lead to any reduction in food deserts. It’s quite the opposite in that excess alcohol availability is in places where food deserts tend to be, which are lower-resource communities,” Eck said. “So, there’s definitely no research showing that alcohol access decreases food deserts.”

Wilson agrees.

“I don’t believe bringing more liquor into any community is a great idea. I don’t believe in easier access to alcohol is a great idea,” the Charles County lawmaker said.

“While I understand that this is something that obviously the public may, in fact, be interested in, I’m interested in discussion. I would like my issues resolved prior to anything passing the House and hitting his [Moore’s] desk,” Wilson said. “So, the governor can make his point that that’s what he desires. Well, I desire answers to make sure that we’re moving in the right direction.”

But Moore touted the benefits of expanding access, saying it might allow stores to stay in business or expand. Allowing grocery stores to sell beer and wine is separate and distinct from the issue of communities already impacted by alcohol access, the governor said.

“Allowing beer and wine inside of grocery stores is not saying that we want to have a liquor store on every single corner,” Moore said. “I think these are two separate issues.

“I agree with the concerns that we have of not proliferating (licenses) in some of our most vulnerable communities … where you’re just, you’re inundating them with these measures of vice,” he said. “I actually understand that issue. I also don’t think that the conversation around allowing beer and wine inside of grocery stores is that. I think those are two separate issues.”

Wilson rejected Moore’s argument.

“You’re saying the areas that … are food deserts, which also happen to be areas that are high poverty, areas that already have a great deal of liquor access would be helped by even more liquor?” Wilson asked. “Again, that is not two different conversations. Those are the exact same conversation.”

A ‘perverse economic tool’

 Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) said he has concerns about allowing more alcohol access in Black communities already flooded with alcohol licenses. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

Moore said in an interview that he strongly supports the bill as an economic development tool.

“When you think about how grocery stores operate at some of the lowest margins in the retail industry … lifting the ban will also provide more incentives for them to have growth and continued operations within our counties, and particularly in areas that have struggled to keep large-scale retailers inside of their jurisdictions,” he said.

Eck called the expansion of alcohol licensees a “perverse economic tool.”

“An economic tool is considered perverse when it goes against the goals of the sponsor of the tool,” said Eck, who said studies show that the cost to the government to cover the economic harms of alcohol is larger than what is collected in taxes.

“So, I look at it as being a perverse economic tool, because it’s not going to lead you to the outcomes that you think it should or that you would like it to,” she said.

The effects on small businesses — specifically current license holders — is a mixed bag.

Small grocery stores would likely benefit from an ability to sell beer and wine, but current liquor stores and packaged goods stores might see a decrease in business, according to an analysis of a proposal in the 2024 legislative session.

That could have  other impacts on communities of color, particularly immigrants, for whom beer and wine stores might be “the last vestige of mom-and-pop retail in our community,” Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Montgomery) said.

“The Amazon effect, the giant box stores, Walmart, Target, have wiped out our mom-and-pop retail businesses,” Kramer said. “The last standing mom-and-pop businesses in retail are our beer and wine stores.

“I don’t want to see them also wiped out by having giant grocery chains shutting them down, because there’s no question, they will not be able to compete,” he said. “It will be just a short period of time before you see them closing shop if we permit beer and wine sales and liquor, whatever it may be, alcoholic beverages in our grocery stores.”

Kramer said policymakers have a responsibility “to our minority community and to our small mom-and-pop business entrepreneurs to give them a chance to participate in retail business.”

“They’re the ones who often — and this has been the case in many of our beer and wine stores in our community — new immigrants who go into business. Then they are able, through their hard work and their labor, to pay for college educations for their children,” he said.

Maryland Senate President Sen. Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City). Photo by Bryan P. Sears. 

Kramer, Ferguson, Eck and the licensed beverage association all expressed concerns that big retail outlets would engage in price cutting to drive out the competition from smaller businesses.

In 2022, Colorado residents voted to allow wine sales in grocery stores over the objections of small store owners who feared they would be forced out of business. Since then, dozens of small operators have gone out of business. As many as 400 more are expected to close by the end of 2026, according to an analysis by the Denver Gazette.

Amprey said he does not believe that has to be the fate of Maryland’s small businesses.

“We can talk about theory or we can deal with reality,” Amprey said. “I was in Texas recently and saw all types of beer in grocery stores and packaged goods stores. They all live together. I saw mom-and-pop stores of every variety from grocery stores to small stores. When I go to California, same thing. You can travel around the United States and see that the fears of people are just not real.”

While it’s not part of his legislative package, Moore said his administration won’t just be “whipping the votes. The General Assembly will know that I want something on my desk at the end of the session.”

“There are members of the General Assembly who have already taken leadership on it,” Moore said. “I’m not going to take the bill away from them, but they know they are going to have me as an ally in this work.”

But Ferguson noted that the bill will face a lot of competition for lawmakers’ attention in the coming session.

“This is a tough issue, and I would say that with all the other issues we have — balancing the budget, keeping the state competitive, energy stability in the state — that’s where our attention should be,” he said.

by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
December 11, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].

 A life-sized statue of abolitionist Harriett Tubman stands in the Old House Chamber in the State House in Annapolis. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

Harriet Tubman was given the posthumous commission as a brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard on Monday by Gov. Wes Moore during a Veterans Day ceremony at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Dorchester County.

“With each act of courage, Harriet Tubman helped bring us together as a nation and a people. She fought for a kind of unity that can only be earned through danger, risk, and sacrifice. And it is a unity we still benefit from to this day,” Moore said, according to a statement released by his office.

The commission was presented to Ernestine “Tina” Martin Wyatt, Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece.

Tubman escaped the slavery she was born into on a Dorchester County farm. She became an abolition leader and is credited with rescuing 70 people during 13 trips to Maryland, according to the Harriett Tubman Underground Railroad Byway.

She later worked as a cook, nurse, scout and spy for the Union Army during the Civil War. According to the museum, Tubman became the first woman to “lead an armed expedition in the war.”

That expedition is credited with the liberation of 700 enslaved people.

The posthumous commission is just the latest recognition for Tubman, whose supporters have been fighting for years to have her represented on the $20 bill. In addition to the Tubman Byway on the Eastern Shore, the state in 2020 dedicated statues of her and of another Maryland native, famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in the Old House Chamber of the Maryland State House.

by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
November 11, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, left, during Wednesday’s meeting of the Board of Public Works. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

The taxman cometh for everyone.

Even the state.

For the first time in memory — perhaps ever — the Internal Revenue Service audited Maryland government. And it turns out Maryland taxpayers owe Uncle Sam at least $5.4 million for tax year 2020.

“This is a new one,” Comptroller Brooke Lierman said at Wednesday’s Board of Public Works meeting where the audit was discussed.

“It might be the first time the state has ever been audited. We looked back 30 years and it had not happened before,” she said.

State and local governments do not have income tax return filing requirements. The IRS notes that those entities are subject to employment and some excise tax filing requirements.

An IRS spokesperson declined to comment on Maryland’s situation, citing federal law on tax return confidentiality. But publicly available data shows that in fiscal 2023, the IRS said conducted 1,645 examinations — the agency’s term for an audit — of tax-exempt organizations, employee retirement plans, government entities and tax-exempt bond returns.

Initially, Maryland was on the hook for roughly $16 million.

Lierman and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, sitting as the Board of Public Works, unanimously approved a $5.4 million payment to resolve most of the matter. Treasurer Dereck Davis was absent from Wednesday’s meeting to attend a funeral.

Rachel Sessa, deputy comptroller for law and oversight. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

“This [lower payment] is specifically because staff within the Office of the Comptroller and other state agencies worked tirelessly to provide and obtain documentation to the IRS to significantly reduce the amount the state owes,” said Rachel Sessa, deputy comptroller for law and oversight. “And since this is the first examination and assessment of its kind, the IRS agreed to waive penalties.”

Sessa warned that the state may still have to pay interest. The amount of that is not yet known. Sessa said state officials were scheduled to meet with the IRS Wednesday afternoon.

The penalties in tax year 2020 were related to three areas, according to Sessa.

First, nine state agencies failed to properly withhold federal taxes for some employees.

Second, a handful of state police within five agencies made contributions to deferred compensation plans that exceeded limits.

Finally, the state was unable to show the IRS that backup withholding was applied to some vendors.

Sessa said the state is implementing a series of “corrective actions” that include education and training for state agencies. She said the IRS will assist in the training, which will begin “over the next couple of months.”

Lierman said she and other state officials “are working to resolve the underpayment issue with the IRS. It occurred under the previous administration. Gov.Moore, Treasurer Davis, I, Lt. Gov. Miller, I know we’re all committed to transparency in the business of government, and … wanted to make sure that people understand what this is, where it came from, and how we are handling it.”

Board approves more public safety lawsuit settlements

The two-member board also unanimously approved nearly $900,000 to settle three cases involving the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The settlements Wednesday bring the total paid out by the department to $10.5 million for the year, according to Lierman.

Joseph W. Sedtal, deputy secretary of administration for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said the agency is working to improve document retention policies for both paper records and video recordings.

Joseph W. Sedtal, deputy secretary of administration for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. File photo by Bryan P. Sears.

“Obviously, one of the things we’ve seen before is that not having that documentation forces the department to defend a negative,” Sedtal told the board. “We’re trying to combat that through an infrastructure improvement, improving our cameras, improving our policies and retention associated with that, including now looking into ways to potentially audit the ability to retain that information, and ensure that when we say, ‘Hey, we need to hold this for a period of time,’ we’re actually doing it.”

Lierman said such policies are necessary not only to protect the state but also to ensure that incarcerated individuals are not mistreated.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to what evidence we have of what happened,” Lierman said. “We can’t allow our lawyers to be put in a position where they’re asking for video footage or sign-in sheets that have been destroyed or that were never made, because then we have put ourselves in a position where we can’t go to trial and we have to settle because there’s no evidence to prove what we what our side of the story, or to prove … to show what really happened, so that we can then discipline the employees and take appropriate action about against the employees.”

Lierman said the department needed not only to update its policies but to ensure those policies are carried out.

“It’s nice to have good policy, but what matters is actual implementation and follow through,” she said.

by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
October 30, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

 Voters cast their ballots inside the Silver Spring Civic Building in Montgomery County during the 2022 elections, as election workers stand by to help. File photo by Emmett Gartner/Capital News Service

As local election boards work around the clock to recruit and train workers before early voting starts this week, some Maryland counties are facing pressure to hire more Republican election judges.

Elections officials across the state told Capital News Service they are still working through the challenge of hiring an equal number of Republican and Democratic election judges, who administer the vote and then count ballots.

“Parity is something we always aspire to,” said David Garreis, Anne Arundel County election director. “But frequently what you’re going to find is that the participation rates between the parties are very different.”

Under Maryland law, local boards of elections must make every effort to staff polling places with an equal number of judges who are registered Democrats and Republicans — although election judges who are not affiliated with either party can be used to make up the difference if officials can’t get an exact partisan match.

Striving for that balance is what Garreis and other local election officials say they are working on now.

But officials in some counties aren’t offering their recruitment numbers or providing updates to the public – even in the face of concerns from local Republicans who say they’d like to volunteer but can’t seem to get a foot in the door.

“I think they’re not being fair with me, and they’re not being transparent about the situation,” said Shawn Poulson, a Kent County Republican and former local party official who says his application to serve as a judge was sidelined by his local board.

CNS spoke with nonpartisan election officials, party leaders and would-be Republican judges in multiple counties to understand this issue.

Anne Arundel County

Garreis said his team is working tirelessly to recruit judges through events at churches and schools as well as by direct mail and social media. These efforts include partnership with both the Democratic and Republican Central Committees in Anne Arundel County.

“With our election judges, usually the first qualification is, do you have a pulse?” Garreis said.

“Because it’s usually very hard to find election judges. The only reason that we would really turn someone away is if they are at a precinct and we’ve already filled all the spots at the precinct.”

Garreis said he has hired more than 2,100 judges so far and needs to hire roughly 400 more. Of those judges, more than half are Democrats, just over a quarter are Republicans, and the rest are unaffiliated.

Registered voters need to attend a three-hour training session in person before they can serve as an election judge.

Calvert County

Kristen Scott, deputy elections administrator in Calvert County, said she has recruited 368 election judges: 181 Democrats, 140 Republicans and 47 unaffiliated. She said the uneven party split should not be of concern to voters.

“The one thing that we really do stress to our election judges is that this is a nonpartisan position,” Scott said. “When you’re in that polling place, there’s no political talk. It’s very nonpartisan, and you’re there to serve the voter, whatever party it is.”

Like Garreis, Scott said she doesn’t immediately turn away judges, but places them on a standby list. In the event that someone cannot serve, she can replace those individuals with Republicans on standby. She said she prioritizes parity on a precinct level.

Scott said that voters can also be poll watchers. Watchers, sometimes called “challengers,” register with their party and are approved to be onsite at precincts to watch election judges. Watchers are unpaid and do not interact with voters or make decisions regarding the vote, but they can report misconduct or other concerns.

Talbot County

In an Oct. 1 letter to the local board of elections, Talbot County Sheriff Joseph Gamble said he had received 25 complaints from citizens over the uneven party distribution of election judges.

Among those complaints, Gamble said, were several Republicans who wanted to serve but were instead placed on standby and told that there were no vacancies at the time. Elections aren’t under Gamble’s purview as sheriff, but he said he was weighing in due to the number of complaints he had received.

Jared DeMarinis, the state administrator of elections, quickly tried to reassure the public in a press release following Gamble’s letter.

“An election judge’s partisan affiliation does not impact or determine the outcome of the election,” he wrote. “Voters decide the outcomes of elections.”

DeMarinis could not be reached for comment on this story. But the head of the local board said the numbers are getting pretty close to even.

Tammy Stafford, Talbot County’s election director, said last week that she has hired 124 election judges, including 61 Democrats, 53 Republicans and 10 unaffiliated judges. She emphasized that these numbers are subject to change.

Stafford said that 106 of the election judges in her county are returning after having worked in the primary. She said her office continues to take applications from interested voters, but as of now, the 10 polling places across Talbot County are fully staffed.

Kent County

Poulson, 47, of Worton, said he applied to be a Republican election judge in Kent County and was placed on a standby list instead of being assigned to a polling place.

Poulson previously served as an election judge and was chair of the Kent County Republican Central Committee. After stepping down from the committee this spring, Poulson said he immediately applied to be an election judge. He said he wanted to be a chief judge – one of the two judges who run a polling place and manage other judges.

Instead, Poulson was disappointed to receive a letter last month stating he was assigned as a standby judge. Poulson said he is not aware of an update from Kent County Election Director Cheemoandia Blake.

Blake declined to speak with CNS or provide an update on the number of election judges hired in Kent County by party.

Cecil County

Gary Holmes, Cecil County’s election director, said he has fully staffed his precincts, hiring approximately 150 Republicans, 140 Democrats and 46 judges who are unaffiliated or third-party.

Although President Joe Biden won Maryland in the 2020 general election, voters in Cecil County overwhelmingly favored Donald Trump.

Holmes said that when he attends training sessions, he tells prospective election judges, “You’re not here to be political. You’re not here to express an opinion.”

Holmes said that his team is proactively fighting misinformation about the election, sharing proper links through social media and directing citizens to the state’s election rumor-tracking page.

Holmes said that the state’s rigorous system of checks and balances ensures that the vote is secure.

“We don’t care who you vote for as long as you get the chance to vote, and we can assure you that we’re very particular about how these records are being kept,” he said.

Montgomery County

Gilberto Zelaya, public relations officer at the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said that he couldn’t say how parity is shaping up between Democrats and Republicans because his team is still in the thick of recruiting.

To hire between 3,500 and 4,000 election judges, Zelaya said, his team holds an average of 500 events annually. Zelaya said he works closely with both parties and has held at least four meet-and-greet events this year at the local GOP office in Rockville.

Stacey Sauter, vice chair of the Montgomery County GOP, also plays a role in voter education and election judge recruitment.

“It’s an overwhelming task for the board of elections,” Sauter said. “And what I have witnessed so far is what they do is very fair and balanced, but they are the apparatus. You cannot control what happens with the people when they go to work at the polls.”

Sauter has run for office as a Republican and previously served as an election judge. She said she has witnessed some things she thinks call for better training. She said she once saw a woman check in to vote who was unable to speak the language or fill out the ballot.

“The question was, is this somebody who is eligible to vote?” Sauter said. “Those are the kinds of things where you could find some kind of debate or discussion on the floor, and you would want to make sure that you had a Republican and a Democrat there to be able to sort it out in an official way.”

Some election watchers see this as a troubling trend. Kate Sullivan is a member of the advocacy group Maryland Election Integrity. The group is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the State Board of Elections for what they say is a failure to maintain voter rolls and use secure voting systems.

“We have great concerns about the [local boards of elections] following the letter of the law,” Sullivan said. “The parity requirement is in service of ensuring neither party feel disenfranchised during an election.”

Sullivan’s case against the state was dismissed on standing by a U.S. district court judge in May, but she said an appeal hearing is scheduled for December.

by Capital News Service, Maryland Matters
October 20, 2024

By Caley Fox Shannon and Morgan Leason

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

Polls show overwhelming support for Question 1, the ballot question that would guarantee “reproductive freedom” as part of the state constitution, but advocates on both sides of the issue say that’s not the end of the fight.

In fact, they say, it’s a reason to fight hard until the end.

With a recent University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Institute of Politics poll showing that 69% of likely voters will vote for Question 1 and just 21% of respondents planning to vote against it, both sides of the issue say they want to ensure that their voters do not get complacent because of the seemingly insurmountable gap.

Abortion rights advocates want to keep that lead strong on Election Day and opponents need every vote they can get to try to defeat the measure in abortion-friendly Maryland.

The UMBC poll results reaffirm a widely understood reality, that Maryland voters are largely in support of protecting abortion access across the state. But polling numbers are only valuable if people get out and vote, said Erin Bradley, chair of Freedom in Reproduction-Maryland (FIRM).

Is ‘abortion’ actually on the November ballot? Breaking down Question 1

“The only way we realize those numbers is if everybody does it. If people get really satisfied with the number and that wide margin of error, and they may stay home, then we run the risk of not winning,” she said.

“That’s really the risk here: That everyone feels that way, and far too many people stay home and we wind up losing — not because people aren’t supportive, not because it’s the will of Marylanders, but just because everyone was really comfortable with the nice lead and decided it was safe to skip it,” Bradley said.

She said that the promising poll numbers do not mean FIRM advocates will relax their advocacy efforts. In fact, it’s reason to keep them going.

On the other end of the abortion spectrum, anti-abortion advocates are also working to ensure that their voters are not discouraged by the apparent popularity of Question 1 and decide to sit out the election as a result.

Jeffrey Trimbath, president of the Maryland Family Institute, said that as the minority position in Maryland, anti-abortion groups are “always concerned about complacency of voters.”

“I think that’s always the case for us. Perhaps especially so with this question,” Trimbath said. “And so, it’s up to us to try to stay engaged and educate as many people as we can and to provide hope for people who have a pro-life perspective on these things.”

While the advocates fret over turnout in November, Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor for Inside Elections, says they shouldn’t worry too much — abortion is not the only draw for Maryland voters this election.

The U.S. Senate race between former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) will draw people to vote, but the presidential election is the real pull.

“Ultimately, the race at the top of the ticket is what’s going to drive voter turnout here, more so than any sort of down-ballot race or measure,” Rubashkin said. “Especially in a state like Maryland. There are a couple things about Maryland that are somewhat more unique: high voter turnout historically, high levels of civic engagement … and one of the most anti-Trump states.

“In an election with Trump on the ballot and a blockbuster Senate race, I don’t think that confidence in the passage of the abortion rights ballot measure is going to depress turnout at all, because it’s only a small part of the calculations,” Rubashkin said.

Still, abortion rights and anti-abortion advocates are pushing forward in their campaigns just to be sure.

Trimbath said that campaign efforts to oppose the ballot measure from now until Election Day will focus on letting voters know about their grievances with the ballot measure, one of which is a claim that it would create a legal loophole that result in any number of far-reaching possible and unforeseen scenarios.

“For us it means that we need to get to as many people as we can and tell them the truth of what this means,” Trimbath said.

Group supporting abortion ballot question launches digital ad

Rubashkin said that the results of the UMBC poll will not likely discourage any anti-abortion advocate that was going to vote against Question 1, since they knew going in that “you’re already the underdog. You understand you are the minority of the state.”

“And so from the beginning, I think you’ve probably been operating with the assumption that it probably was going to be an unsuccessful effort on your part,” Rubashkin said. “So, I don’t think another poll showing you down 30, 40 points is going to do all that much difference on whether you are going to show up or not.”

That said, Bradley with FIRM said that her organization is continuing outreach efforts in the days leading up to the election to ensure that their supporters aren’t swayed by the opposition, so the ballot measure succeeds with the current projected lead.

FIRM just launched a $500,000 digital ad campaign in support of the measure, which is the largest media expenditure on behalf of the ballot question so far.

“It’s really just reminding people about the importance of this. It is our time, it is our opportunity,” Bradley said. “69% of Marylanders, we’re led to believe through polling, support this. It’s their opportunity to make sure that it gets across the finish line.”

by Danielle J. Brown, Maryland Matters
October 14, 2024

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