Deadline Passes for Group Opposing Council Redistricting

A deadline to deliver enough signatures to place a bill redrawing Baltimore County's seven council districts came and went Thursday with nary a petition being filed with county elections officials.

Opponents of the plan had 45 days to deliver at least 9,513 of the 28,826 signatures of registered county voters to the Baltimore County Board of Elections. That deadline passed at the close of business Thursday.

Katie Brown, county elections director, said Friday that no petitions were turned in.

Representatives of a group of Liberty Road community associations who were spearheading the effort to place the issue on the 2012 ballot were not immediately available for comment.

Ella White Campbell, executive director of the Liberty Road Community Council, said in an interview last week that she did not believe the group would be able to collect enough signatures.

White Campbell, in that interview, blamed elections officials whom she said .

"This is an exercise in futility because the games have already been played," White Campbell said on Nov. 8.

White Campbell said a lawsuit challenging the plan would be the next course of action—most likely the basis of a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act or a civil rights violation.