In a “Call to Action 5/24/22 Election District Changes” document from Carroll CAN (Carroll County, Maryland’s Community Action Network) the entity mentions:
Changing Parties
This is always a tough pill to swallow, but in races where there is one seat and all of the candidates share the same party affiliation, it can make a huge difference. Maryland’s closed primaries mean that voters can only vote within their parties in the primary and independents and third party voters can only vote for candidates in non-partisan races. Voters in certain districts in Carroll County may want to consider changing their voter registration to Republican for the primary to boost the desirable Republican candidates. This may certainly be the case for voters in Commissioner Districts 2 and 5. Voter registrations can be updated again following the primary.
The deadline for updating party affiliation and registering to vote is 6/28/22.
Local Election Candidates
State Election Candidates
See the social media post here:
The Carroll CAN website notes a Mission Statement of:
“We are a non-partisan grassroots organization committed to action in our community that honors diversity, promotes equality, and is inclusive, ethical and just.”
Opinion: The statements made in the recent “Call to Action” does not feel very “non-partisan” to this writer (and not just about voter registration…be sure to read the full document here).
Also…there is nothing wrong with changing your voter registration to participate in a Primary Elections in Maryland. This is the system setup by the elected officials in this state and I expect that changing party affiliation happens often in election years.
The Observer recently wrote about “Active Voter Registration in Carroll County – April 2022” (READ HERE). Noted in that article:
Active voter registration in the county is lower from January 2022 to April 2022 (-547).
Active voters that registered as Republican has decreased since January 2019 (-621). Active voters that registered as Democratic has risen since January 2019 (+1,005).
Republicans fell below 50% of all registered voters in the County between January 2021 and January 2022 and currently stands at 49.64% as of April 2022.
Independent voters (or “unaffiliated”) has risen each year since 2019 and currently stands at 22.33% of all registered voters in the county.
The Observer will review the May and June 2022 numbers to see if this “Call for Action” significantly changes voter registration in Carroll County in the near future.
If interested in additional information about candidates running in local races be sure to check out the MANY Voter Guide’s produced by the Carroll County Observer:
