[EL] an obscure school board election law question

[J.H. Snider]

I have a question regarding an obscure school board election law issue.

The Maryland General Assembly delegates the nomination of Anne Arundel County's Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) to a student council.  It provides complete discretion to the student council as to how the nomination will be conducted.  The governor is required to select a candidate nominated by the student council.

The SMOB has the same voting rights as the adult members of the Board of Education and helps manage a $1.2 billion budget with more than 10,000 employees.

The student council has a duly passed constitution that includes a clear provision for a committe to nominate student candidates.  The council did not follow that provision this year.  The student council claims to have changed that provision with a routine motion at a meeting of its executive committee, but duly passed minutes recording that motion were not provided in response to a Public Information Act request for them and the council makes no claim that the council's constitution was ever changed.

Today, Maryland's Governor appointed the candidate nominated by the student council.  Could the appointment be challenged on legal grounds because the council violated its own constitution in nominating the candidate?  Maryland's election law<http://www.elections.state.md.us/laws_and_regs/documents/Election%20Law%202011.pdf> does not appear to cover this type of rule violation.

I published a Washington Post local op-ed on this appointment process: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan should veto the Anne Arundel student nomination<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opinions-are-local/wp/2016/04/19/maryland-gov-larry-hogan-should-veto-the-anne-arundel-student-nomination/>.  It covers the basic issues, but I only vaguely mentioned the discrepancy between the student council's constitution and actual procedures because I hadn't been able to get key facts by deadline.  I'm considering writing a follow-up column.

Sincerely,

J.H. ("Jim") Snider, Ph.D.
President of iSolon.org<http://www.isolon.org/>
Editor of The State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse<http://concon.info/> and The New York State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse<http://www.newyorkconcon.info/>
E-Mail: snider at iSolon.org<mailto:snider at iSolon.org>
Phone: (202) 540-0505
Fax: (408) 228-0577
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