A virtual meeting to gather comments about Congressional and Legislative redistricting will be held on Wednesday, June 30 specifically for residents of Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett County. This meeting is one of eight meetings that are part of the listening tour for the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission.
Maryland’s state legislative districts and Congressional districts may be affected by population changes shown by the 2020 Census. Final data has not been received from the Census Bureau.
“These meetings are meant to serve as a listening for the Commission to hear the concerns and questions of Marylanders as to the redistricting process,” said the commission.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. on June 30 and can be accessed by going to the Meeting tab on redistricting.maryland.gov/Pages.meetings.aspx. Residents are asked to register for the meeting by filling in a registration form.
Individuals can watch the meeting without participating by using this link: youtu.be/1DxQZYyUWHI.
Even though meetings are arranged by Maryland regions – from the Eastern Shore to individual high-population counties – any residents can attend any of the meetings to come. All meetings are live streamed, then posted on the redistricting website for later viewing.
The remaining listening tour meetings are as follows:
Western Maryland: Allegany, Frederick, Garrett, and Washington counties –June 30
Central Maryland: Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Howard counties – July 7
Baltimore County – July 12
Montgomery County – July 21
Prince George’s County – July 28.
The Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission is bipartisan commission created by Governor Larry Hogan to draw fair and representative legislative and congressional district maps for the 2022 elections.
This is the first of three rounds of public meetings – the first round is a listening tour; the second round will occur later in 2021 after Census data is distributed to the states; and the third round will occur after the Commission drafts legislative and congressional maps.
To register for the meeting, sign up to give live testimony from your computer, tablet, or smartphone, or to simply watch the meeting, visit the redistricting website for links. The meeting will be streamed in both English and Spanish. Residents can also dial in by calling 301-715-8592 and entering the webinar ID 994 6627 0105. Comments must be kept to three minutes.
State residents can also submit comments electronically or send a redistricting question to redistricting.commission@maryland.gov.
Submissions should be kept to a maximum of 750 words. Attachments will be accepted not to exceed five pages.
Public meetings will begin promptly at 6 p.m. on the designated dates.
Each meeting will begin with a brief welcome and summary of Commission business. As these meetings are meant to allow the public to express their views and concerns regarding the redistricting
process, the majority of the meeting time will be for the public to provide testimony.
Closed-captioning will be provided for the hearing impaired.
