Many people have expressed concern about the low voter turnout in Maryland elections. In my view, one reason for this is the fact that we have very few competitive races. Often Prince George’s County incumbents get to coast through the primary without any opposition, and due to one-party dominance there is only token Republican opposition in the general election. With such uncompetitive elections, why bother voting? In this year’s general election, I only had two races on my ballot that I consider to be somewhat competitive—the governor’s race and the Board of Education race.

If we extend the term limits for our county officials, we will have even fewer competitive races. That would surely have a negative impact on the already dismal voter turnout.