Maryland Question 3: Congressional districts

Constitutional Amendment · On every Maryland ballot · Election Day Tuesday, November 3, 2026

This page explains what the question does. It does not tell you how to vote.

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What your ballot says

Electoral Districts – General Assembly and Congressional Representatives

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.

(Amending Article III of the Maryland Constitution)

For the Constitutional Amendment
Against the Constitutional Amendment

In plain terms

Question 3 is about the rules for drawing Maryland’s districts for the U.S. House of Representatives (the “congressional districting plan”). It makes three changes to the Maryland Constitution.

1. The state constitution’s map-drawing rules would cover state legislative districts only. Article III, Section 4 of the Maryland Constitution says each legislative district must be made of connected territory, be compact, and be of “substantially equal population,” and that “due regard” must be given to natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions (counties and Baltimore City). The amendment adds words saying these rules apply to districts for the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates. Congressional districts are not mentioned.

2. Nothing in the Maryland Constitution would set rules for congressional district lines. A new Section 62(b) says that nothing in the Maryland Constitution, “including the Declaration of Rights,” provides “applicable criteria” for the boundaries of congressional districts. The Declaration of Rights is the part of the state constitution that lists Marylanders’ rights.

3. The General Assembly could send congressional map challenges straight to the state’s highest court. A new Section 62(a) lets the legislature give the Supreme Court of Maryland “original jurisdiction” over the congressional map. That means a challenge could start in the Supreme Court of Maryland instead of in a local circuit court. Today, a state-court challenge to the congressional map starts in a circuit court.

What a vote FOR does

The three changes above become part of the Maryland Constitution. The Maryland Constitution, including the Declaration of Rights, would supply no criteria for congressional district boundaries. The lines would remain subject to the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and any Maryland statute on congressional districts (see below). The General Assembly could, by a later law, route congressional map cases directly to the Supreme Court of Maryland.

What a vote AGAINST does

The Maryland Constitution stays as it is. It does not say anything explicit about congressional districts. In 2022 (memorandum opinion of March 25, 2022, in Szeliga v. Lamone and Parrott v. Lamone), the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County ruled that the state constitution’s district standards apply to congressional districts too, relying on Articles 7, 24 and 40 of the Declaration of Rights. That was a trial-court ruling. Challenges to the congressional map would continue to start in a circuit court.

What applies either way

• The U.S. Constitution requires congressional districts to have equal population (“one person, one vote”).
• The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 still applies.
• The amendment’s preamble says congressional districting “remains subject to the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and any Maryland statute expressly governing congressional districts.”
• In 2019, in Rucho v. Common Cause (decided together with a Maryland case, Lamone v. Benisek), the U.S. Supreme Court held that “partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
• Maryland’s current congressional map was enacted in 2022 (Chapter 16 of 2022). The amendment does not draw a new map. Its preamble says it “is not intended to provide new grounds to challenge” the 2022 plan.

How Question 3’s ballot wording was set

The other two statewide questions come with a sentence telling you what a vote For and a vote Against would do. Question 3 does not. Here is the record of why:

• A 2026 state law (Chapter 439, effective June 1, 2026) requires ballot questions, including those proposing constitutional amendments, to be written in plain language and to explain the practical outcome of each choice.
• Chapter 881, the law that put Question 3 on the ballot, wrote its own ballot wording and required it “notwithstanding any other provision of law.” The legislature’s nonpartisan analysts said this “effectively exempts the ballot question from existing statutory requirements governing the timing and content of ballot questions.”
• Fifteen voters sued in two counties. On September 3, 2026, the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled that one clause of the legislature’s wording, that the amendment “requires the criteria for boundaries of congressional districts to be determined by applicable federal laws,” was misleading and violated due process. It held that the lower courts were wrong to remove the question from the ballot over state election-law timing rules or the constitution’s single-subject rule, with full reasons to come in a later opinion. As a remedy it called “appropriately respectful of the General Assembly’s constitutional authority to propose constitutional amendments,” it ordered the bill’s purpose paragraph printed on the ballot in place of the legislature’s wording. That is the text you see.
• The legislature’s own statement of purpose, in the amendment’s preamble, says it “clarifies the long–standing understanding and case law that Article III, § 4 of the Maryland Constitution governs only General Assembly districting plans, not congressional districting plans.”
• Two justices dissented. Justice Gould, joined by Senior Justice Harrell, wrote that the replacement wording “remains misleading” because voters “would not understand that the criteria being removed include the guarantees of the Declaration of Rights.” As of the September 3 order, the Court’s full opinion and the full dissent were to be filed later.

Who put it on the ballot

The Maryland General Assembly, in a special session held August 3–5, 2026. The bill was House Bill 2100, introduced by the Speaker of the House. It passed the House of Delegates 96–38 and the Senate 32–13, both on August 4, 2026. A constitutional amendment needs three-fifths of each chamber; both votes cleared that bar. It became Chapter 881. Amendments to the Maryland Constitution take effect only if voters approve them.

Cost

The Department of Legislative Services’ fiscal note says the amendment “is not anticipated to materially affect State operations or finances.” Local effect: none.

Sources

• Ballot text and links: Maryland State Board of Elections, 2026 ballot questions
• The amendment as passed: House Bill 2100 (Chapter 881) · bill history and votes
• Fiscal and Policy Note, HB 2100 (Department of Legislative Services)
• Official summary approved by the Attorney General
• Supreme Court of Maryland, per curiam order and dissent, Nos. 21 & 22, September 3, 2026
• Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. 684 (2019)

Checked against these documents on October 17, 2026. Found an error? Tell us.