Federal judge dismisses suit seeking to halt certification of Maryland election

BALTIMORE — A federal judge Wednesday dismissed without prejudice a lawsuit against the Maryland State Board of Elections filed by a right-wing coalition seeking to delegitimize election results across the country.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said in an opinion filed less than a week away from primary day that plaintiffs United Sovereign Americans, a nonprofit Missouri corporation, and Maryland Election Integrity, a limited liability corporation founded by a South Carolina lawyer, lacked standing.

“Although the company’s mission might theoretically be impeded by the alleged voting violations, the company does not appear to conduct any regular activities for achieving that mission,” Gallagher wrote. “In short, plaintiffs allege no concrete or particularized injury to members of Maryland Election Integrity but simply generalized grievances applicable to the community as a whole. Courts routinely find such grievances insufficient to demonstrate standing to sue.”

The suit filed in March sought an injunction requiring Maryland to “update and keep accurate the voter rolls” and not certify any election because of a number of problems that collectively show that the elections board “has lost control of the voting system.”

United Sovereign Americans, on its website, describes Maryland as a testing ground for a host of similar lawsuits. Harry Haury, the group’s chairman, said in a recent interview promoted by the group that Maryland is a “model first case” and that the organization was “building a more robust template” as it prepared to file lawsuits in 11 more states and eventually up to 20 total.

In the interview on a Lindell-TV program — started by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election — Haury did not mention any specific issues with Maryland’s elections. But he said his group was “going to go after the officials” in various states for what he saw as a “lawless” elections process. He also said, before the dismissal of the suit Wednesday, that the group would appeal if necessary.

“We’re going to continue fighting it. If at the lower level courts they dismiss it, we’ll appeal up the line and try to get the attention that it merits,” Haury said.

The United Sovereign Americans website indicates the group is working toward getting a case before the U.S. Supreme Court before the presidential election in November.

Annapolis-based attorney C. Edward Hartman III, who represented 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox when he challenged the State Board of Elections during his statewide race, is representing the plaintiffs in the latest case. He did not return requests for comment about the prospect of an appeal.

The court’s dismissal came just days before Tuesday’s primary and as a week of early in-person voting was set to wrap up on Thursday. Tens of thousands of Marylanders have already cast ballots, and some of those have already been canvassed by local election workers preparing to tally the votes after the polls close next week. High-profile races include the statewide Democratic primary for U.S. Senate — a matchup between Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and U.S. Rep. David Trone — and the Democratic mayoral primary in Baltimore, primarily between Mayor Brandon Scott and former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Election officials last month had warned that the lawsuit was an attempt to “disenfranchise voters” ahead of the primary.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, whose office represented the elections board, argued in a motion to dismiss that the court did not have the authority to rule over the case, and that the plaintiffs’ complaint did not include enough facts to bring the case to trial.

Gallagher agreed, granting Brown’s motion.

“A plaintiff may not invoke federal-court jurisdiction unless he can show a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy,” Gallagher wrote. “A federal court is not a forum for generalized grievances, and the requirement of such a personal stake ensures that courts exercise power that is judicial in nature.”

Brown’s office declined to comment Thursday. An audit of the State Board of Elections conducted by a legislative committee last year did not find widespread fraud or call into question the integrity of any election results.

Cox’s legal challenge to the State Board of Elections in 2022 centered on a change to the mail-in ballot process that allowed local elections officials to more quickly prepare those ballots. His effort failed, including a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court that the justices declined to review months after Cox lost in a landslide.

In an attempt to increase confidence in the elections process, the state elections officials recently launched an online portal that answers questions related to a variety of “rumors” and offers a place for voters to report disinformation and misinformation they see on social media.

_____