The Maryland General Assembly adjourned its 2026 legislative session on April 13 after sending 22 election-related bills to Gov. Wes Moore (D). Moore signed each of the bills between April 14 and May 12.
Among those bills was SB 255, which established the Maryland Voting Rights Act. The bill prohibits counties or municipalities from using a method to elect their governing bodies that impairs the ability of members of a protected class to elect candidates of their choice or dilutes or abridges the right to vote for voters who are members of a protected class.
Under the legislation, the state attorney general or a private party can file a court action to enforce the bill’s prohibitions, and the bill creates a legal framework for courts to use when reviewing those actions.
Maryland is the 10th state to enact a state-level voting rights act and one of three states to enact a new state-level voting rights act or to amend an existing law so far this year.
The Senate passed SB 255 32-14 on April 13, with 32 Democrats voting in favor and one Democrat and 13 Republicans in opposition. On the same day, the House of Delegates passed the bill 91-19 along party lines. Moore signed the bill on April 28.
Lawmakers also enacted HB 115 and SB 241, which require the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the State Board of Elections to automatically restore the voter registration of individuals released from state prisons. Maryland is one of three states to enact legislation so far this year that modifies an automatic voter registration system.
Other election bills enacted in 2026 include:
- HB 1448 and SB 848 , which require municipalities to provide certain information to the State Board of Elections, including a list of municipal election candidates and policies governing the use of ranked-choice voting .
- SB 949 , which requires absentee ballots postmarked by election day and received before 10 a.m. on the second Friday after the election to be counted for non-federal elections if a federal court or federal law establishes requirements for absentee ballots that are different from state law.
- HB 263 and SB 100 , which require buses operating on fixed local routes to allow passengers on and off at an entrance of an early voting center on early voting days if the center is within one-half mile of the route, to the maximum extent practicable.
- SB 29 , which establishes requirements for the language used in ballot initiative statements. These include a requirement that the statement describe the initiative’s policy change in clear, easily understandable language.
- SB 670 and HB 1001 , which require police officers on duty at polling places and early voting sites to obey the orders of the state elections administrator, their deputy, or a local election director, in addition to the polling place’s election judge. The bills allow those same individuals to order the arrest of anyone who breaches the peace, violates state election laws, or interferes with the duties of election officials.
- SB 141 , which requires the State Election Administrator to take action to correct election misinformation or disinformation and authorizes the administrator to seek a court order to remove such information from an online platform.
The House of Delegates voted on Feb. 2 to approve HB 488, which would have enacted new congressional districts for the 2026 elections and submitted a constitutional amendment to voters in the November election authorizing the use of those maps until the 2030 Census. The Senate did not take up the bill.
Maryland enacted 24 election-related bills in 2025, nine in 2024, and nine in 2023. Legislators introduced 95 election bills in 2026, compared to 85 in 2025.
