Maryland court blocks ballot bid to redraw congressional map before 2026 vote

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 27, 2026 08:20 IST

Washington, Aug 27: A Maryland court has blocked a proposed constitutional amendment that could have opened the way for Democrats to redraw the state's congressional map before the 2028 elections. The ruling on Wednesday is another setback to wider Democratic efforts to respond to a Republican redistricting push backed by President Donald Trump ahead of this year's elections.

The judge said the amendment cannot be placed on the November ballot, though he put the ruling on hold to allow an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court. Democrats already hold seven of Maryland's eight congressional seats, and Democratic Governor Wes Moore had called a special session in August with the aim of making it easier to target the remaining seat.

The ballot measure, referred by lawmakers, sought to get around a court ruling that struck down an earlier Democratic redistricting plan in 2022. It said the constitutional requirement that districts should be compact and consider "natural boundaries" would apply only to state legislative districts and not to congressional ones. That would have allowed Democratic lawmakers to draw congressional districts crossing the Chesapeake Bay and reshape a district east of the bay held by Republican Representative Andy Harris, chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Robert Thompson ruled that lawmakers had failed to follow deadlines set under a law they had passed earlier this year and which Moore signed. The law set a July 1 deadline for the secretary of state to certify summaries of all statewide ballot questions to the Maryland State Board of Elections. The state attorney general's office argued that the deadline did not apply to the redistricting amendment because lawmakers had written their own ballot summary under their constitutional authority. Thompson rejected that argument and agreed with the conservative Oversight Project and Republican state lawmakers who had challenged the measure.

Thompson also said lawmakers had used "intentionally misleading" wording in the ballot question by saying it simply "clarifies" the constitution's redistricting standards. He further ruled that the amendment breached the constitution's single-issue rule because it also included a provision giving the state Supreme Court original jurisdiction in cases over congressional redistricting. "The court has no choice but to enjoin the board of elections from including ballot Question 3 on the general election ballot for November 3, 2026," Thompson wrote.

Shortly after the ruling, the state filed a notice of appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court. Maryland House Speaker Joseline Pea-Melnyk, a Democrat, said, "We remain confident in the authority of the General Assembly and believe Maryland voters should have the final say." Opponents of the plan said the fight was continuing. But "today's decision is a major step in our battle against Maryland's lawless attempt at redistricting. Complete and total vindication!" Oversight Project Strategic Counsel Marshall Yates said in a statement.

Maryland is the latest state drawn into a broader redistricting fight. Earlier this year, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a redistricting ballot measure over procedural violations by lawmakers, even after voters had approved an amendment in April allowing mid-decade redistricting. Virginia and Maryland had been seeking to follow California, where voters approved a Democratic-backed amendment authorising mid-decade redistricting. Democrats hope to gain as many as five seats from California's new map and one more from Utah, while Republicans are aiming for as many as 16 additional US House seats from new districts in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. Redistricting is usually carried out after census data is released at the start of a decade, but a mid-decade battle has emerged after Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts to help the party protect its narrow House majority in this year's midterm elections.

The ruling, the appeal and the competing claims from both sides leave Maryland at the centre of a wider national battle over congressional boundaries before the next round of elections.

With PTI Inputs

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