Delegate Nicholaus Kipke (R-31st District), of Pasadena, delivered thousands of signed petitions to the Maryland Secretary of State on Thursday night calling for a referendum on .
Kipke called the redistricted map "gerrymandered," and has gathered petitions signed by MDPetitions.com. He said there are now more than the required number of signatures to pass the first threshold on getting the congressional redistricting plan onto November ballots for voters.
“The people are once again telling Governor O’Malley and his democratic allies that they are not doing right by the people,” Kipke said in the release. “The O’Malley map cuts our county into pieces that make absolutely no sense.”
Under the new redistricting, Kipke said his region has four different congressional districts along Mountain Road in Pasadena.
"This means no Congressman will feel a real sense of accountability to our county because they each only represent small slivers,” Kipke said in the release.
Kipke said he hopes residents take note of the governor’s congressional redistricting plan despite the fact it lacks what he called “the provocative appeal” of other popular topics of conversation, like or , according to the release.
“If the measure reaches the ballot and the voters overturn the gerrymandered map, I believe the courts will put in place a fairer map as they have in years past,” Kipke said in the release.
While the delegate claimed he provided enough signatures to meet the first threshold to get the measure onto November ballots, Kipke said thousands more will be required by July to ensure the petition is a success.
The petition can be found online: https://mdpetitions.com/redistricting.
