Reporting on non-partisan elections requires more and different work by newspapers

Capital Article

Pacella, Rachael, Unaffiliated voters can vote in primary for Anne Arundel school board, February 28, 2018.

Snider Comment

I am glad the Capital finally ran this story. When it comes to newspapers such as the Capital covering non-partisan elections, they often have great difficulty because their conventional (and inexpensive) news formulas aren’t well adapted.

The public should understand that implementing newly passed election laws is not as cut & dried as it is often presumed to be. I’ve posted some of the Maryland AG’s opinions used to interpret the law, such as who is eligible to run as a candidate, on eLighthouse.info. Note that AG opinions are only advisory and often highly politicized. Nevertheless, for practical purposes, they are treated by boards of election (and newspapers) as law.