Perez out as AG candidate; early voting out too

The Maryland Court of Appeals delivered a one-two punch to Marylanders today. First, (via MoCo Progressive), they ordered (PDF) that Attorney General candidate Tom Perez be removed from the Democratic primary ballot:

ORDERED, by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, a majority of the Court concurring, that the judgment of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County be, and it is hereby, reversed, and the case is remanded to that court with instructions to enter (1) a declaratory judgment that Thomas Perez does not possess the Constitutional qualifications for the office of Attorney General by reason of not having practiced law in Maryland for a period of ten years as required by Article V, Section 4 of the Maryland Constitution, and (2) an order directing that the name of Thomas Perez be removed from the ballot at the September, 2006 primary election. [Emphasis added.]

Then, they upheld a lower court's decision throwing out the state's early voting law, which found (PDF) that it violated the state constitution's provisions on both the timing of elections and where citizens are allowed to vote. Both decisions were, as the Post notes, brief and without comment.

Needless to say, I'm rather shocked by these decisions. Perez would have made a great AG: He had very definite ideas of what he wanted to do with the office, and a record to back it up. He was certainly the most web-savvy of all the statewide candidates, which was one reason (not the only) that I supported him. I'm half-tempted, actually, to write him in, as a MoCo Progressive commenter suggests. More likely, though, I'll go with Doug Gansler. He is overly ambitious, as his critics claim, but I like that he at least appreciates that Maryland needs an vigorous Attorney General in the mold of Eliot Spitzer to go after, for example, violators of enivronmental statutes. Stu Simms, by contrast, while having a great amount of legal experience, it seems that's all he brings to the table.

As for early voting, I disagree with the court's ruling, though I recognize that the lower court's decision had a reasonable basis. I choose my words carefully, because Bob Ehrlich and the Republicans are already crowing over this setback for expanding the franchise in Maryland, and I don't care to give them any ammunition. What I hope is that the Democrats in the General Assembly will go back and start the long, hard process of amending the state constitution to allow early voting in every precinct, though even the half-baked measure that was passed was better than nothing at all. That said, Russ Louch's question is still valid: why are absentee ballots allowed, but early voting banned?

In the meantime, if you can't make it to the polls Sept. 12 (or Nov. 7), request an absentee ballot as soon as you can.

UPDATE: And I hope that Maryland Democrats avoid casting the Court of Appeals' decisions as one made in bad faith, as MoCo Politics seems to be doing. Broad accusations of judicial activism is something Republicans do -- not Democrats.

Tags: Maryland politics, early voting, Tom Perez, Doug Gansler, Bob Ehrlich, Democrats, absentee ballot