There will be nine Baltimore County Council seats up for grabs in 2026 but you wouldn’t know it from the Maryland State Board of Elections’ website.
It shows just seven districts, which is causing confusion for some council candidates.
Sharonda Dillard-Huffman has filed to run as a Democrat where she lives in District 7, except she eventually will be moved into the new District 8.
“I do have somebody running against me,” Dillard-Huffman said. But they haven’t fixed the map yet. He is in 6.”
That would be Jack Carmody. He too eventually will live in the 8th district. His campaign website says he’s running in District 8. But his Facebook page address says he’s running in 6, where he currently lives.
“That just came down to my inexperience with running in politics,” Carmody said. “I just kind of misread the new redistrict map and unfortunately Facebook only lets you change your name every six months.”
County voters last year approved expanding the council from seven to nine districts and the county council passed a new map in September.
Neither state nor county elections officials returned requests for comment Thursday.
At a county board meeting in November, county elections director Ruie Lavoie said getting things squared away for next year has been complicated in part because there are still just seven elected school board seats.
Mark Brewster is running for the council but he is holding off filing until the smoke clears.
“So I currently live in District 4,” Brewster said. “But I’m going to be in District 3. So if I were to file right now in District 4. People check my website and see District 3, they’ll be asking questions. Just to avoid all of that confusion, I’m just waiting for everything to be finalized so we can do it one time, seamlessly and go forward from there.”
Makeda Scott is in the same boat. She lives in the 4th District but eventually will be running in the newly-drawn 3rd District. Unlike Brewster, Scott has already filed and she says it has caused some confusion for voters.
Scott said, “A lot of people will ask me, ‘well I went and looked and I see that you are listed in the 4th but you said you’re in the 3rd.’”
Candidates have to file for the June primary by February 24.
