I introduced my first bill of the session.

House Bill 217 would extend early voting to the Sunday before Election Day and double the number of early voting locations in every jurisdiction before the general election.

Baltimore City, for example, would have ten, instead of five.

For the bill hearing later this session, I hope to have data that compare the turnout and the time voters spent waiting in line in the states that have voting on that last Sunday (mostly blue) and those that don’t (mostly red).

We will also need to address the concerns raised by our State Board of Elections that there would not be enough time to prepare for Election Day after Sunday voting.

I’m also looking for a Senator to sponsor this legislation.

The prospects for my bill will be better in the Senate if its provisions have had a full hearing, instead of the brief review that a House bill often gets in the last two weeks of the session.

When I testify on HB 217 in the House (and hopefully, the Senate), I will quote from President Barack Obama’s Inaugural address:

“Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.”

      However, this portion of his speech moved me the most:

“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.” 

At those locations, historic events took place in the history of women’s rights, voting rights, and gay rights, respectively.

“The arc of the moral universe is long,” declared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “but it bends toward justice.”