October 27, 2026

Montgomery Community Media

By Alexandria Barnes

The amendment does not redraw any districts, and it does not set new rules for congressional maps. If it passes, any new map would need a separate vote by state lawmakers. The earliest a new map could take effect is the 2028 election.

In simple terms, supporters say Question 3 would restore the rules Maryland used for congressional maps before a 2022 court ruling. They say it would also put Maryland on the same footing as states redrawing their maps under federal law. Opponents say it would remove state constitutional protections a court has used to block partisan gerrymandering or drawing districts to unfairly favor one party.

Voters may struggle to tell any of this from the ballot. The question is a single 69-word sentence.

Ballot wording has become a growing concern in Maryland. State Sen. Cheryl Kagan, D-Montgomery, said roughly 400,000 voters skipped the statewide ballot questions in 2022 after voting for governor.

Here is the wording voters see:

“FOR the purpose of clarifying that certain requirements apply only to districts for the election of members of the Senate of Maryland and the House of Delegates; authorizing the General Assembly to grant original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court of Maryland to review the congressional districting plan of the State; and providing that nothing in the Maryland Constitution provides applicable criteria for the boundaries of a congressional districting plan.”

What your vote would do

Congressional districts determine who represents Maryland in the U.S. House. The state has eight congressional districts.

The state constitution currently includes rules for drawing district lines. Districts must be connected, compact and respectful of natural and local boundaries such as rivers and county lines.

A vote for Question 3 would keep those rules for districts in the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates. They would no longer apply to congressional districts. The amendment would not create new state rules to replace them.

The amendment would also let state lawmakers send lawsuits over congressional maps directly to the Supreme Court of Maryland instead of starting in lower courts.

Supporters say the constitutional rules were written for state legislative districts and were never meant to apply to congressional maps. Opponents say removing those rules would make it easier for politicians to draw districts favoring one party over another.

A vote against Question 3 would leave the constitution unchanged. People challenging congressional maps could still use those constitutional rules in court.

In 2022, a Maryland judge struck down the state’s congressional map using those rules. The judge ruled the map was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, meaning it unfairly favored one political party.

Why supporters and opponents disagree

Supporters, including Gov. Wes Moore, say Question 3 would help Maryland respond to Republican-led redistricting efforts in other states.

At a Fight Back MD event on Monday, Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman said the question “does not redraw a single district line.”

“It answers one question. What rules govern how Maryland draws its congressional districts?” Lierman said.

“Question three is not about a seat. Question three is about our democracy,” Gov. Moore said.

Republican leaders and groups including the Maryland Freedom Caucus oppose Question 3.

The Freedom Caucus joined the lawsuit challenging the question. After the ruling, the group said the court “corrected the Democrats’ homework instead of striking it completely.”

Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, a Baltimore County Republican, said the new wording still falls short.

“It still does not clearly explain the significance of what voters are being asked to approve,” Salling wrote after the ruling.

Why the wording changed

State lawmakers approved the amendment during a special session in August. Circuit judges in Anne Arundel and Dorchester counties then blocked it from the ballot.

On Sept. 3, the Supreme Court of Maryland put the question back on the ballot. The court found part of the legislature’s wording misleading. The justices then wrote the 69-word question voters see today.

Justice Steven B. Gould disagreed. In his dissent, he argued the court should not rewrite the question for the General Assembly. He also wrote the new version “remains misleading.”

A new plain language law

Maryland now has a law requiring ballot questions in plain language. It took effect June 1, months before voting on Question 3 began.

State Sen. Cheryl Kagan, D-Montgomery, introduced the bill in several legislative sessions before it passed this year. She said dense wording pushes voters away from ballot questions.

“When they’re confused, they don’t want to vote in a way that is ‘wrong,’ or against their values, and so they skip it,” Kagan said. “I believe that informing the voters and not confusing them with jargon or passive language just allows voters to be more engaged.”

The problem reaches beyond Maryland. A new Ballotpedia report finds ballot questions in 40 states average a first-year graduate student reading level this year.

Still, the new law does not apply to Maryland Question 3. Kagan said lawmakers exempted the amendment from the requirement during the August special session.

The wording then went through the courts. Kagan, who supports Question 3, said the Supreme Court’s rewrite made it even harder to follow.

“They took something that was a little hard to understand and they made it worse,” Kagan said.

She expects future ballot questions to be clearer under the new law.

“The law makes it much easier. Question 3 unfortunately is not easier,” Kagan said.

Read before you vote

Voters can read the full text of all three statewide questions on the Maryland State Board of Elections website.