The Maryland House Ways & Means Committee heard HB 626 on February 25.  This is the bill to ease the law on how a party remains on the ballot.  Current law says a party continues to be ballot-qualified if it has registration of 1% of the entire state electorate, which is over 40,000 registered members.  The bill would lower that to exactly 10,000 registered members.

All the committee members who said anything about the bill seemed supportive.  Three individuals testified in favor, and no one testified against.  The Committee may vote on the bill on Tuesday, March 17.