The word “redistricting” seemed to have vanished from the Maryland State House in recent weeks, despite it being one of the legislative session’s hottest topics earlier this year.

But all of that changed on Wednesday.

The House of Delegates attached a redistricting-related amendment to an unrelated voting bill that passed almost unanimously in the Senate nearly two months ago.

In its original form, SB0005 would have amended the Maryland Constitution to require that special elections be held to fill vacant seats in the General Assembly.

Currently, if a lawmaker vacates a seat, the governor appoints someone to fill it based on a recommendation from the former lawmakers’ affiliated political party.

If the proposed constitutional amendment becomes law, appointed candidates would be up for election during the annual primary or general elections — giving voters more say in who represents them.

That bill is now up for consideration in the House, but Del. Kris Fair (D-Frederick County) tacked on an additional constitutional amendment that would clarify language around how Congressional districts can be drawn.

“Each legislative district shall consist of adjoining territory, be compact in form, and of substantially equal population. Due regard shall be given to natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions,” reads Article III, Section 4 of the state constitution.

Fair’s amendment would codify that those map-drawing guidelines would only apply to state legislative districts, not to Congressional districts.

This change would theoretically make it easier for the Democratic-controlled legislature to draw a Maryland Congressional map that favors Democrats 8-0 and passes constitutional muster.

Maryland is presently sending only one Republican to DC, Congressman Andy Harris (R-District 1), who represents the Eastern Shore.

Democrats have already faced legal hurdles when they tried to pass an 8-0 map in 2021.

A Maryland judge struck the proposed map down for “extreme partisan gerrymandering,” citing the exact constitutional language House Democrats are looking to change this year.

The same language change was proposed within HB0488, which passed with only Democratic support earlier this year, but that bill also included a physical map that would have redrawn Harris’s district to loop in more Democratic voters.

That bill has sat in a Senate desk drawer ever since at the behest of Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City).

The new apparent “compromise” — without the map — was attached to the special election voting bill on Wednesday, but Republicans used a special procedure to move debate on the legislation to Thursday.

While it is likely to pass given House Democrats already approved the same constitutional change two months ago, the bill’s tallest obstacle remains the same: the Senate.

“We have 20 days left of session, and we've got a lot of huge issues, and that's what we're going to prioritize. This is something that doesn't come up until the next census, which is in 2030, and so I think we can take it up when it makes the most sense to prioritize,” Ferguson told members of the press on Wednesday.

Ferguson is referring to the traditional timeline for when maps are redrawn — every 10 years.

But under the direction of President Donald Trump, some Republican states have been redrawing their Congressional maps ahead of the 2026 election to favor the GOP.

Several Democratic-controlled states have been working to counter those new maps with their own redistricting efforts, and Gov. Wes Moore has repeatedly called on the Maryland legislature to do the same.

In a statement on the newly proposed constitutional amendment, Moore spokesperson Ammar Moussa said: “The House of Delegates put forward compromise legislation that addresses many of the legal concerns around mid-cycle redistricting. Until we have true national redistricting reform, this debate will continue across the country and the Governor welcomes legal clarity about our own redistricting laws.”

Those legal concerns have been one of Ferguson’s main points of opposition on early redistricting, and despite this amendment potentially addressing them, he insists now is not the time to take up redistricting-related legislation.

“I appreciate that they've conceded that there is, in fact, a constitutional problem. And so I think that that's— I appreciate that that is now finally out in public. But, I think that we've only got three weeks left, and it takes 29 votes to break a filibuster here in the Senate, and so we’ve got to focus on the issues that are most important,” he said.

Ferguson also argues this bill presents a new legal challenge. It would propose two constitutional amendments on two separate matters — special elections and redistricting.

The Senate president believes the joining of the two amendments would violate the Maryland Constitution’s “single subject rule,” which requires that General Assembly bills only tackle one topic at a time to promote transparency.

“I think I've been pretty clear where I think the Senate is on this, and I think everybody had already moved past this issue, except for a few others who hadn't,” Ferguson said.

If the House gives final approval to the amended bill, it would go back to the Senate for consideration.

The bill would be unlikely to reach the floor for a vote, meaning adding constitutional language to implement special elections would also die.

“We're not going to pass a bill that has two constitutional— we're not going to do something unconstitutional to deal with a constitutional problem. And so I think it's going to be hard to see that bill pass,” Ferguson said. “It's something the Senate has cared about, making sure that voters have access to vacancy replacement. Guess the next time we'll deal with it is in 2032.”