2025 End of Session Wrap-Up: Elections

The segments below provide a brief overview of MACo’s work on election policy in the 2025 General Assembly.

An essential function of Maryland’s county governments is to fund and oversee elections — overseeing polling places and coordinating poll workers every two years. MACo advocates for necessary and timely policy changes that balance the shared goals of providing fair, open, and transparent elections. In addition, MACo guards against state policies that result in costly or burdensome implementation for local election officials.

Maryland’s 447th legislative session convened amidst a substantial concern over the State’s fiscal situation, with weakened revenues and cost increases for many services at every level of government.

Despite the budgetary limitations, many policy issues received a full debate, with many resolutions arising from the 90-day annual process. MACo’s legislative committee guided the association’s positions on hundreds of bills, yielding many productive compromises and gains spanning counties’ uniquely broad portfolio.

Follow these links for more coverage on our Conduit Street blog and Legislative Database.

MACo opposed SB 18 – Election Law – Early Voting – Number of Days. This bill would have extended early voting by four additional days by requiring early voting centers to remain open through the second Monday before an election instead of the Thursday before, adding significant unfunded costs to local Boards of Elections. This bill did not pass in the 2025 session.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo supported HB 586/SB 534 – Election Law – Election Judges – Compensation. This bill ensures that election judges receive training compensation only if they serve on Election Day or during early voting. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo supported HB 525/SB 361 – Election Law – Influence on a Voter’s Voting Decision By Use of Fraud. This bill would have strengthened Maryland’s election laws by prohibiting deepfakes and other synthetic media from fraudulently influencing voters or misrepresenting candidates during elections. This bill passed the House and Senate but in different forms. A conference committee failed to iron out the differences in time, and the bill did not pass in the 2025 session.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo supported HB 983 – Election Law – Local Boards of Election – Language Assistance Program and its cross-file, SB 685 – Election Law – Local Boards of Election – Language-Related Assistance with amendments. This bill enhances language access in elections while ensuring local governments have the necessary resources to meet these new requirements. Counties requested amendments to make this a State-funded policy rather than an unfunded mandate. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo supported HB 75/SB 262 – Election Law – Special Elections. This bill enables charter counties to tailor special elections to local needs while ensuring compliance with statewide standards for voter accessibility and election integrity, providing timely updates to processes for holding special elections to fill county executive and county council vacancies. This bill passed the 2025 General Assembly.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo supported HB 412/SB 337 – Elections – Local Boards of Elections – Open Meeting Requirements (Local Boards of Elections Transparency Act) with amendments. This bill aims to enhance election transparency by requiring local boards of elections and boards of canvassers to live-stream and archive video recordings of open meetings and ballot canvassing sessions. The General Assembly accepted MACo’s amendments to address concerns about local election boards’ technological capacity, the high cost of necessary upgrades, and the need for flexible, practical implementation. This bill passed the Maryland General Assembly.

Bill Information | MACo Coverage

MACo supported HB 550 – Local Public Campaign Financing – Expansion to Additional Offices. This bill would have expanded the offices for which a county may establish public campaign financing. This bill did not pass in the 2025 session.