The group behind the “Stop the Spend” charter amendment is asking a judge to put the measure on the November ballot, arguing the Montgomery County Board of Elections wrongly rejected hundreds of valid signatures.
The Committee to Control Montgomery County Spending filed a Petition for Judicial Review against the Board in Montgomery County Circuit Court, case number C-15-CV-26004929. The committee is represented by Joseph E. Sandler of the Washington firm Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock. It announced the filing on its Facebook page.
How the Signature Count Broke Down
The filing lays out the arithmetic. The committee turned in 11,408 signatures on July 21, of which the Board accepted 7,999. It submitted 2,666 more on July 27, of which the Board accepted 1,699. That left 9,698 valid signatures out of 14,074 submitted, and 4,376 rejected.
On August 17 the Board issued a Notice of Determination finding the petition 302 signatures short of the 10,000 required, as Moderately MOCO reported at the time.
The 325 Disputed Signatures
The committee says that of those 4,376 rejected signatures, at least 325 were valid and should have been counted. Added to the 9,698 the Board accepted, that would come to 10,023, or 23 more than the threshold.
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The filing includes an exhibit listing each disputed signature by batch number, petition page and line, along with the Board’s stated reason for rejecting it and the committee’s own assessment. The committee says it believes still more signatures should be counted beyond the 325 it has identified.
What the Committee Is Asking For
The petition asks the court to find the Board’s determination “erroneous as matter of law and unsupported by competent, material, and substantial evidence,” to reverse it, and to order the Board to issue a new determination qualifying the amendment for the November 3 ballot.
Timing was tight. The filing notes that a challenge had to come within ten days of the Board’s determination or by the 69th day before the general election, whichever came first, and identifies that deadline as August 26. Court records show the petition was e-filed August 25.
What the Amendment Would Do
The proposed amendment would require every member of the County Council to vote yes before the county could approve an operating budget that grew faster than the previous year’s inflation rate. The committee says it would not force cuts to any particular program. The petition’s form was found legally sufficient by the Board’s executive director in May 2025, and the committee collected signatures through 2025 and the first half of 2026.
What Happens Next
A petition for judicial review asks a court to examine an agency’s decision. Filing one does not change the Board’s determination, and no ruling has been issued. Moderately MOCO has not independently reviewed the disputed signatures, and the Board of Elections has not publicly responded to the challenge.
The committee’s full statement, as it was released, follows.
STOP THE SPEND FIGHTS FOR A PLACE ON THE NOVEMBER BALLOT
The Committee to Control Montgomery County Spending has filed a Petition for Judicial Review in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. The filing challenges the Board of Elections’ determination that the “Stop the Spend” charter amendment petition did not contain enough valid signatures to appear on the November 2026 ballot.
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Our filing identifies at least 325 rejected signatures that we believe should be counted, which is enough to exceed the required 10,000-signature threshold.
We respect the Montgomery County Board of Elections, its staff, and their important role in protecting the integrity of our election process. We also recognize the difficulty of reviewing thousands of handwritten petition entries.
After conducting a careful, signature-by-signature analysis, we are asking the court to review the challenged signatures and the reasons they were rejected. We believe the record shows that Montgomery County voters submitted more than enough valid signatures to place this important question on the ballot.
The proposed charter amendment would require unanimous approval by the County Council for an operating budget that grows faster than the previous year’s spending, adjusted for inflation. It would not mandate cuts to any particular program. Instead, it would create a clear fiscal guardrail while preserving the Council’s ability to exceed it when every Councilmember agrees.
This case is about more than signatures. It is about giving Montgomery County voters a voice on property taxes, fees, affordability, and the continued growth of County spending.
The Committee remains committed to ensuring that residents have the opportunity to decide how quickly their county government’s spending should grow.
Read the Petition for Judicial Review: https://qrco.de/BoE_Petition
