Maryland

Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Valerie Ervin received a boost Thursday in her attempt to get her name onto the June primary ballot when the state Democratic Party publicly supported the effort. “The Democratic Party believes that Maryland law requires the Maryland Board of Elections to do everything in its power to list all eligible gubernatorial candidates and to conduct a smooth election process for all voters,” party Chairwoman Kathleen Matthews said in a statement Thursday. “Voters deserve nothing less.” And an attorney for Ervin and her running mate, Marisol Johnson, appeared before the Maryland State Board of Elections in Annapolis to press the campaign’s case for new ballots.

An Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge has refused to order the Maryland State Board of Elections not to use ballots for the June 26 Democratic primary that list Valerie Ervin as a candidate for lieutenant governor. Judge Laura Sue Kiessling scheduled a hearing for Monday on whether the state must change its ballots to reflect that Ervin has replaced her former running mate, the late Baltimore County executive Kevin Kamenetz, at the top of the ticket. Kamenetz died unexpectedly May 10. Ervin, a former member of the Montgomery County council and school board, took his place on the ballot, and tapped former Baltimore County school board member Marisol Johnson as her running mate.

Maryland gubernatorial candidate Valerie Ervin is threatening legal action after state election officials announced they would not print new ballots reflecting her recent candidacy following the sudden death of her running mate. The state board of elections announced that it would not reprint ballots for the June 26 primary to reflect Ervin as a Democratic candidate for governor. She was previously running as lieutenant governor on the ticket with former gubernatorial candidate and Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, who died of a heart attack on May 10. Ervin’s campaign said in a news release Monday night that it had sent a letter to State Board of Elections Administrator Linda Lamone, threatening legal action if ballots are not reprinted, along with other suggestions on what election officials could do to better address the change in candidates.

In the wake of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, Maryland is close to enacting a law that some experts say would set a new standard for how states deal with foreign interference in local elections and increase overall transparency in online political ads. If signed by Gov. Larry Hogan, the law would require online platforms to create a database identifying the purchasers of online ads in state and local elections and how much they spend. The measure would effectively extend disclosure rules that apply to paid political ads for radio, television and print to social media.