A Maryland General Assembly bill that could require special elections to fill legislative vacancies in certain circumstances has made it over the hump of crossover day, increasing the chances it will become law.
The legislation sponsored by Montgomery County Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Dist. 17) in the Senate and cross-filed by a fellow county lawmaker Del. Linda Foley (D-Dist. 15) in the House of Delegates proposes an amendment to the state constitution to deal with the issue of filling legislative vacancies across the state.
The bill would require that, in the event of a legislative vacancy, a special election for the seat be held at the same time as the regular statewide primary and general elections — if the vacancy occurs on or before the date that is 55 days before the candidate filing deadline for that election. If a vacancy occurred more than two years into a legislator’s four-year term, a special election would not be required and a political party’s central committee could fill the seat.
Kagan’s bill received a favorable vote on the Senate floor on Feb. 27 and successfully “crossed over” to the House of Delegates before March 17, meaning it is more likely to make it to a full House vote. If the bill passes the House, the proposed constitutional amendment would appear on the election ballot in a future election. The legislation had bipartisan support in the Senate, with 44 senators voting in favor and three absent. There was no debate on the legislation at its full Senate hearing on Feb. 25.
“At the first part of a four-year term, there would be special elections held in conjunction with the presidential election cycle,” Kagan explained during a brief one-minute introduction of the bill in the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. “After that, there would be the typical, customary thing of going to the Democratic and Republican central committees for appointments that would then be approved by the governor for legislative vacancies.”
Kagan represents parts of Rockville and Gaithersburg in the General Assembly.
Currently, there is only one way that a mid-term legislative vacancy can be filled under existing state law. The state constitution requires the political party of the lawmaker vacating a seat to nominate a person to fill the vacancy within 30 days after it occurs and to submit the nominee’s name to the governor, who approves it as a formality.
This process has faced scrutiny. Montgomery County is represented by 35 legislators in the Maryland General Assembly, making up one of the largest contingencies in the legislature. But because of the current legislative vacancy process, 40% of those legislators were appointed by the county’s Democratic central committee instead of being chosen by voters in an election. In 2023 and 2024 alone, the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) appointed 10 legislators to fill vacancies in the state legislature.
The proposed legislation “combines the efficiency and continuity of an appointment process with the democracy of voter input,” Foley said during a Jan. 28 House Ways and Means committee hearing on the legislation. Foley, who represents Potomac, was appointed to her seat in 2021 by the MCDCC.
According to Foley, 31 states have protocols that include special elections to fill legislative vacancies. Only nine states have procedures similar to Maryland’s committee model. Maryland previously employed special elections to fill legislative vacancies until the mid-1930s, she noted. Since then, more than 250 legislators have been appointed by committees instead of being elected by constituents.
History of the special elections effort
The proposed legislation marks the second time Foley and Kagan have fought for special elections legislation in the General Assembly. Both legislators sponsored a similar bill that died in the legislature in 2024, and lawmakers in Annapolis have been spearheading efforts to change the way legislative vacancies are handled since 1996, Foley said. While Senate committees have typically easily passed versions of such legislation, the bills did not come up for a vote in the House Ways and Means Committee in 2021, 2022 or 2024 after crossover day.
That committee is chaired by Del. Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Dist. 13) of Howard County. The election law subcommittee is led by Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Dist. 20), who represents Silver Spring. In previous years, Wilkins had shown resistance to the legislation, but she has shown interest in the new bills that were introduced this session.
Atterbeary’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Bethesda Today on Wednesday about whether Kagan’s bill has been scheduled for additional hearings or a vote within the committee. The legislative session ends April 7.
Another bill, sponsored by Montgomery County Del. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Dist. 17) in the House of Delegates and cross-filed in the Senate by Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Dist. 12) of Anne Arundel and Howard counties, takes a different approach than the legislation proposed by Foley and Kagan. It would create new requirements for central committees when conducting internal elections to fill vacancies, including standards for advertising the vacancy and opening the voting meeting to the public, with the intent of improving transparency, according to Palakovich Carr. Currently, MCDCC follows these protocols.
However, the bill also would also require any member of a central committee who has applied to fill vacancy to recuse themselves from voting on candidates to fill the vacancy, which is not currently the practice of the MCDCC.
Palakovich Carr’s bill successfully received a favorable vote from the House of Delegates and “crossed over” to the Senate but has not yet been scheduled for an introduction in the Senate.
