Politics

Republican state lawmakers announced legislation Thursday to require voter identification and signature verification, though those measures have repeatedly failed in the General Assembly. Measures to require voters to show a form of identification before casting their ballots and to require election officials to verify signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes were also introduced by Republican lawmakers in the 2021 legislative session, but those bills did not advance in the majority Democratic General Assembly.

Key deadlines for Maryland’s 2022 elections have been pushed back as a result of lawsuits filed challenging a plan that redraws the state’s legislative districts. The changes are the result of an order from the state’s highest court issued Friday evening pushing the deadline to file as a candidate back one month to March 22.

A congressional committee is coming to Baltimore to examine the city’s poor mail service. A subcommittee chaired by Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly is planning a field hearing late Monday morning in Baltimore. The committee said it wants to better understand the reasons for the chronic poor performance of the U.S. Postal Service throughout the region. It’s also hoping to identify possible solutions.

In Wheaton, Maryland, county and state lawmakers gathered at the site on Veirs Mill Road where a 59-year-old woman was struck and killed by a vehicle as she was crossing the street in January. They hope to bring attention to the rising number of pedestrian deaths taking place in the region. Last year, Montgomery County saw 40 pedestrian and bicyclist incidents. Only six weeks into 2022, and the county has already seen 50 incidents and two deaths.

Two cabinet nominations put forward by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. were approved by a Senate panel on Monday — and lawmakers moved along several nominations to serve on the board of the Maryland Environmental Service, a quasi-governmental body whose leadership has been called into question. The Senate Executive Nominations Committee also signed-off on Hogan’s request to have several long-serving former officials take on new roles.

Maryland’s education reform oversight board recently hired a new executive director last week to help implement the sweeping Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan, but it does not have enough funds to hire additional staff members for the next several months, hampering its progress. Without a full staff and funding, it is unlikely that the Accountability and Implementation Board can meet a deadline in two weeks to develop a comprehensive education reform implementation plan.

Robert L. Wallace, the Baltimore business executive who racked up a respectable 20% of the vote as an independent candidate for mayor in 2020, is contemplating a late entry into the gubernatorial election. Wallace told Maryland Matters on Tuesday that he is paying for a poll to determine his potential strength in both the June Republican primary and as an independent candidate in the general election.

House Judiciary Committee Vice Chair David Moon (D-Montgomery) is sponsoring a bill encouraging investigations into cases of wrongful convictions. “I would argue that in law and criminal justice, imprisoning innocent people is a catastrophe,” Moon said Tuesday at a hearing on his bill. “It’s the professional equivalent of a doctor amputating the wrong leg.” As amended, House Bill 249 would require that the Attorney General’s office and professional boards, including the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities and the Attorney Grievance Commission, be notified when the Board of Public Works learns that someone is eligible for compensation because they have been wrongfully convicted or because a judge grants a writ of actual innocence.