October 2018 Newsletter
Dear Resident,
With under a month left until the 2018 General Election, I wanted to ensure that you were aware of some important upcoming dates regarding our election.
Deadline to Request an Absentee Ballot
The deadline to request an absentee ballot with a paper application is Tuesday, October 30th. You can also request an Electronic Absentee Ballot online by Friday, November 2nd. Click HERE for instructions on how to request and complete an absentee ballot.
Early Voting
Early Voting for the 2018 General Election begins on Thursday, October 25th and ends on Thursday, November 1st. You can vote early from 10:00am-8:00pm at any of the 11 Early Vote Centers in Prince George’s County. If you want to avoid long lines on Election Day, I encourage you to vote early!
2018 General Election Day
The 2018 Democratic Primary will take place on Tuesday, November 6th. Please confirm your polling place HERE as they occasionally change. The polls will be open on Election Day from 7:00am-8:00pm.
2018 Ballot Questions
This year, there will be several questions at the end of your ballot. The first two questions relate to statewide issues – establishing a “lockbox” for casino revenue and implementing same-day voter registration. I provide a detailed explanation of these questions below, and you can review the language of these questions HERE. I encourage you to vote “For the Constitutional Amendment” on both of these questions.
The remaining questions various local County bond and personnel issues. I also provide a link for you to review these questions below.
For more information on the upcoming General Election, please contact me directly, and don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 6th or vote early from Thursday, October 25th-Thursday, November 1st.
Establishing a Casino Revenue “Lockbox”
Politicians lied to you about how lottery and casino revenue would be used when casinos were approved several years ago.
Due to legislation passed by the General Assembly, you will be able to vote to create a “lockbox” for education funding, which will ensure that over $500 million in gaming revenue will be used to fund public education.
Since 2010, when Maryland’s first casino opened, nearly $2 billion in casino revenue has gone to the Education Trust Fund – the special fund that voters were promised would add additional dollars to our public schools. Unfortunately, this money has simply supplanted other general funds that would normally be spent in the public education budget allocation. This means that no additional revenue has been added to the State’s education budget from the recent construction of several casinos.
As our public schools face overcrowding, deteriorating buildings, and wide student achievement gaps, this lack of funding is unacceptable. We can reverse this trend and ensure that gambling money is used to enhance education funding – not supplant it – by voting “For the Constitutional Amendment” on Statewide Ballot Question 1.
To review the language of this Ballot Question, click HERE and scroll down to “Question 1”. For additional information regarding this ballot question, click HERE.
Implementing Same-Day Voter Registration
As the Chair of the Election Law Subcommittee, I led the effort to implement same-day voter registration in our State.
On this year’s ballot, you will have the opportunity to vote to approve this initiative to expand voter access so that the 500,000 unregistered Maryland voters will have even more opportunities to register to vote in our elections.
Currently, Maryland allows eligible residents to appear at an early voting center and apply to register to vote. Since this initiative began in 2016, 9,800 unregistered voters have registered to vote during early voting. Same-day voter registration will simply expand this program to provide unregistered voters with the opportunity to register to vote at their precinct polling place on election day.
To register to vote on election day, an individual will be required to go through the same process required to register to vote at all other times – demonstrate proof of residency and sign an oath under penalty of perjury that they are a United States citizen.
Right now, 16 states and the District of Columbia allow same-day registration, and none of those states has reported an increase in voter fraud due to election day registration. In fact, same-day registration is actually more secure than registering by mail or online because the person is physically present at the polling place.
To remove a significant barrier to voting, I encourage you to vote “For the Constitutional Amendment” on Statewide Ballot Question 2.
To review the language of this Ballot Question, click HERE and scroll down to “Question 2”. For additional information regarding this ballot question, click HERE.
Local Ballot Questions
Following these statewide ballot questions, you will see a series of local County ballot questions regarding issuing bonds and County personnel. To see a full list of these questions, click HERE and scroll down to “Prince George’s County”.