Politics

Baltimore City Del. Chanel Branch, daughter of retiring House Majority Whip Talmadge Branch, will not return to Annapolis to represent District 45 in January. According to results certified Tuesday by the Baltimore City Board of Elections, Branch, who represents Hamilton, Gardenville, Armistead Gardens and other neighborhoods, lost by an extremely narrow margin. Winners Caylin Young, the deputy director for the Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights, and Branch’s fellow incumbent, Stephanie Smith, bested her by 116 and 187 votes, respectively.

A campaign finance system that would give some candidates the option of accepting government funding if they only accept small donations could be coming to Anne Arundel County. A coalition of state and local voter groups announced Monday it had delivered a petition with more than 11,000 signatures from county residents — a thousand more than required — to the Anne Arundel County Elections Board to add a question about the proposed charter amendment on the November general election ballot.

A coalition of former city officials, business executives, academics and economists that sought a ballot referendum that would have cut city homeowners’ property tax rates fell short of the number of signatures it needed to get on the ballot, the group said Monday. Renew Baltimore, which wanted to reduce the property tax rate by 44% over a six-year period, said it obtained about 9,000 signatures of the 10,000 required to put the question to voters. The group was collecting signatures for two petitions, one to amend the city charter and the other to set and cap city property tax rates

An emergency session of the Maryland State Board of Elections took place on Monday. Due to this year’s primary being moved from late June to mid-July, the board had to set new deadlines for candidates to withdraw from the general election ballot. The Board voted unanimously to set Aug. 16 as the date for nominees from the primary to withdraw from the general election ballot. That date is also the deadline for local election officials to remove candidates due to disqualification.

The votes from the Republican primary for the Harford County Council’s District D seat will be recounted as a result of a mere 11-vote margin between the top two candidates. Following the Harford County Board of Elections’ third vote-counting canvass Friday, James Reilly was the top contender with 2,862 votes, or 39.1% of the vote, with John B. Carl, Jr. on his heels with 2,851 votes, or 39% of the vote.

It’s still unclear whether the Baltimore County Board of Education is allowed to stick to a rule that calls for seven ‘yea’ votes to approve an agenda item, even when the 12-member board is missing members or some abstain. But things would look different if they hadn’t. They would have renewed the chief auditor’s contract, former member Cheryl Pasteur would have been the board’s chair, and construction funds for Towson, Dulaney and Lansdowne high schools would’ve been added to the budget, according to meeting minutes.