The first day of early voting for the 2010 Gubernatorial General Election got underway in Harford County Friday morning with long lines outside the doors of the Bel Air library.
About 25 people turned out to vote before 10 a.m. (there was some confusion as to whether early voting started at 9 or 10 a.m.) Hundreds of signs lined the streets. Bob Ehrlich, Jesse Bane and Andy Harris sign waving volunteers were out in full force. Del. Wayne Norman and Register of Wills hopeful Derek Hopkins were among those to cast the first votes.
It was also announced that Ehrlich would be coming to Bel Air this weekend for an Early Voting Rally at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday across from the Bel Air Library on Hickory Avenue.
In Harford County, you can vote early at:
Bel Air Public Library
100 E. Pennsylvania Avenue
Bel Air, MD 21014
In Cecil County, you can vote early at:
Cecil County Administration Building
Elk Room
200 Chesapeake Blvd
Elkton, MD 21921
Early voting centers will be open 10am to 8pm every day from Friday, October 22nd through Thursday, October 28th, 2010, except for Sunday, October 24th when early voting centers are closed. And all early voting centers are accessible for voters with disabilities. Early voting is convenient, accessible and on your schedule.
Anyone have any interesting observations from their early voting experience today?
I don’t understand why Bane has someone dressed as a clown with Bane gear on at the library. I don’t understand why Deputies are campaining in marked county cars and Bane is putting up signs while in his uniform all off these thing are violations of the agency’s rules and Regs. I thought about voting for Bane today but it seem like wasting tax payers dollars is ok during the election but there are not enough money for staff raises or to hire deputies to put on the street to help protect us. Jeff got my vote and everyone I know to….
He is Uncle Sam NOT a clown. Not a joke.
I saw Bane dressed like a puppet and Union President Don Gividen was the puppet master pulling his strings.
I can’t stress enough that more than 300,000 Illegal aliens are voting in md democrat.They earned that priviledge because omalley allowed them a drivers license with little or no id. O’malley needs these votes to win which is why he gives them $2billion tax $$ every year to illegals on welfare because of their “babies for profit” scams and they take the jobs meant for citizens. Its called a Bribe.. They also drive our roads and can’t read the signs. I urge you to vote in great numbers.Ask your disabled and senior neighbors if they need a ride..
One Constitutional Amendment to be decided in the General Election is State Question 2, which asks the citizens to decide if the right to a trial by jury in civil matters, as protected by the Maryland Declaration of Rights (Maryland’s Constitution), should be further whittled away for the benefit of special interests. I would respectfully argue NO.
Currently, only 18 states in America have some minimum monetary requirement to limit a right to a trial by one’s peers in civil matters. This proposal, if passed, solidifies Maryland as the second-highest state in the Country (behind Louisiana) with a monetary restriction on who can have a trial by jury. As a bit of explanation, the “amount in controversy” referred to in the Question is the amount that one person sues another for. Under Maryland’s laws, it is the one who sues who effectively decides how much the “amount in controversy” is. Unless that amount is so outrageous that a court could address a request by the person (or business) being sued to change it, that person being sued has no say in whether he or she can have the issue decided at trial by a group of that person’s peers.
The supporters of this constitutional limitation – primarily the personal injury lawyers – have argued that this is necessary as a “cost of living increase”. The opponents of this issue – which includes a number of consumer insurers, local governments, local Boards of Education, and consumer rights groups – strongly believe that Constitutionally-protected rights should not be governed by “cost of living increases”. This limitation impacts everyone – the working family struggling in this economy to pay their bills, the small business sued over simple contract disputes, the local school boards and local governments who struggle to balance their budgets while providing the needed services to their constituents.
For the past three years those who have tried to get this Constitutional restriction passed in Annapolis have said this was necessary to ease the “burden” on Circuit Court – the only Court where a jury trial is allowed. While they have yet to present any facts to show that such a “burden” exists, the Judicial Branch itself noted in November 2008 that the District Court (where jury trials are not allowed and where more cases will have to be heard if this passes) have seen a “significant increase in civil jurisdiction”. What does this mean? It means that if this passes, already overloaded District Court Judges will have to handle even more cases.
Constitutional rights need to be treated as seriously today as our Founding Fathers did then. Additional encroachments to such a Constitutional right should occur only when there exists an overwhelming need to protect the rights of the citizenry. No such overwhelming need exists here. As one Federal District Court judge once noted, “For where a jury sits, there burns the lamp of liberty”. That lamp should not be dimmed solely to give a special interest group a “cost of living increase” at the expense of working families and small businesses.
Vote AGAINST State Question 2.