Petition seeking to bring a municipal annexation resolution to referendum could not be circulated and signed by members of the relevant electorate before final enactment of the targeted resolution.
The Town of Oxford, Maryland introduced a resolution proposing to annex a sizable number of acres of submerged lands adjacent to the Town’s boundaries. Following first publication in a local newspaper of a legal notice of the pendency of the resolution and of the date and time of a public hearing, as required by the governing annexation statute, petition circulators among the voters of Oxford prepared and began circulating a petition for referendum regarding the proposed resolution.
A registered voter filed a complaint for declaratory judgment and writ of mandamus that sought a determination that referendum petition signatures could be lawfully obtained before final enactment of an annexation resolution.
The court of appeals held that a petition seeking to bring a municipal annexation resolution to referendum could not be circulated and signed by members of the relevant electorate before final enactment of the targeted resolution.
The annexation statute’s 45-day period following the final enactment of the resolution for obtaining the signatures of registered voters to petition for a referendum on resolution acted as a substantial restriction on when petitions could be circulated, as only after enactment of a resolution could voters be fully informed about all pertinent information of the given resolution.