One in six picks. Everyone pays.

Maryland counties have spent millions in taxpayer dollars matching donations to candidates running in races where most voters can't even cast a ballot…

Last week, I wrote about who gets to vote in Maryland's most consequential elections. Today is about who pays for them. Last week's post was about Maryland's closed primary problem: the structural reality that, in counties dominated by one major party, the spring primary increasingly determines the November winner. In Howard County in 2026, no Republican filed for County Executive. No Republican filed for four of five County Council seats. The June 23 Democratic primary will pick the winners. Every Republican voter, every voter registered with no party affiliation, every voter registered with a third party — locked out of the only contest that matters. That's the voting half of the disconnect. Today's post is about the funding half. Maryland's experiment with public election financing In 2013, the Maryland General Assembly passed a campaign finance reform bill that, among other things, authorized counties to establish their own public financing programs for County Council and County Executive races. Annapolis didn't create a statewide program — it gave counties the option to create their own. Six jurisdictions have done so: Montgomery County (first used in 2018), Howard County (2022), Baltimore City (2024), and three more — Prince George's County, Baltimore County, and Anne Arundel County — are running their inaugural cycles in 2026. Howard County voters approved a charter amendment establishing the Citizens' Election Fund in November 2016 by a 52.6% to 47.4% margin. The principle behind these programs is sound. Candidates who opt in agree to refuse PAC, corporate, and large dollar donations. In exchange, the public matches small donors' contributions at a multiplier. The intended effect is to break the influence of large donors and let candidates without access to…