Contentious Redistricting Maps Approved As Baltimore County Council Expands

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — Baltimore County voters will have new districts next time they head to the polls.

The Baltimore County Council on Monday approved a map for the updated voting districts by a 5-2 vote, multiple reports said. The move comes as the council expands from seven to nine members to improve representation of the county's growing minority population. Voters approved the expansion in a referendum last November.

About 53% of the county is white, while 47% are people of color. The county, however, previously had a single Black-majority district and a lone Black council member.

The Baltimore Banner said the final maps created two Black-majority districts and one majority-minority district, all on the west side of the county.

The approved map reunites Reisterstown into one district and unifies other neighborhoods near Pikesville, WJZ reported.

The maps are not yet available online because amendments were made at Monday's meeting.

Supporters say the new maps increase representation of voters from racial minorities. Opponents alleged that the public didn't have enough time to analyze the maps and share feedback before key votes.

"It really creates an opportunity to have three minority members join this council in 2026," Council Member Izzy Patoka (D-Pikesville) said, according to WYPR.

The legislation needed five votes to pass, but the council is split with four Democrats and three Republicans, meaning the GOP needed to support the final maps in order for them to pass.

Pat Young (D-Catonsville) and Julian Jones (D-Woodstock) were the only council members to vote against the maps, the reports said.

Young proposed an amendment to instead use a map from the Redistricting Commission that was based on resident feedback. Democrats outnumber Republicans 2:1, so Young thinks there should be six majority Democrat districts and three with mostly GOP voters.

Under Young's proposal, however, Democrats would have had the majority in every district. There were three competitive districts where Democrats held an advantage of less than 6 percentage points over Republicans.

WYPR said Young's proposal also included a fourth minority-majority district on the county's east side.

"Baltimore County deserves a fair map that reflects our County's demographics, gives every resident equal representation, and ensures the public has a real voice in the process," Young said on Facebook before the vote. "The Commission did its work on behalf of county residents by holding open hearings, gathering public input on where the lines should be drawn, and most importantly by staying impartial to requests from council members."

Jones proposed an amendment that he said "would alter the boundaries on the West Side of Baltimore County to create … one of two Black-majority districts that would be centered in the Woodlawn community."

"My constituents are asking me to stand here and defend their communities. My constituents did not ask you to bring the intersection of Liberty Road and Rolling Road and make that the intersection for three different districts," Jones said, according to WBAL-TV.

Jones also urged the council to delay its vote by one week to allow the public to review the last-minute amendments to the map.

"Ultimately, we are working under constraints of a backroom deal that locked in disproportionate Republican control and left many East Side communities angry and disenfranchised," Jones said in a press release before the vote. "A delay is necessary. A Woodlawn-centered district serves an important community. I hope my colleagues embrace greater transparency and adopt these options."

The amendments from Young and Jones both failed, WJZ and WYPR said.

The vote came immediately after protesters called for a fourth majority-minority district on the east side.

"Although people of color make up nearly half of the County’s population[,] the Council’s current map does not include any majority-minority districts among the four districts on the County’s east side," their press release said. "This deprives minority communities on the east side of political influence and equity."

Chair Mike Ertel (D-Towson) said the council was trying to expand representation, but the debate turned into a "nightmare," according to WJZ.

"We advocate to fix potholes," Council Member Todd Crandell (R-Dundalk) said, according to WYPR. "There are very few decisions on this dais that have run along ideological lines."

Council Member David Marks (R-Upper Falls) said he had hoped "that the area south of Interstate 95 would have remained in the Perry Hall/White Marsh district, [but] there was a 'ripple effect' as the Council attempted to meet its legal requirements under the Voting Rights Act."

"Last-minute attempts by partisan Democrats to gerrymander Baltimore County were an absolute failure," Marks said in a press release. "Baltimore County is not the State of Maryland; it isn't California or Texas. We reject extreme partisanship and produced a map where qualified candidates of either party can win."

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