Frederick County
Frederick County
The Year Ahead
What's next? Politics never ends.
At our Annual meeting yesterday We elected new officers and Board members, and planned our program for the year. We did not have a quorum to pass changes needed to our bylaws, so we will be preparing a proxy vote for members to vote on each proposal. Look for that in your email later this week.
Our speakers City Council member Cesar Diaz and former Election Director of the Frederick County Board of Elections Stuart Harvey were excellent. The discussion about resident voting and potential voting changes that may happen before the election was engaging and very active. As always, seeing new faces in the audience is just lovely.
Check out our "Meet the Board" page to see who is now what in our power structure.
2026 FORUMS
In conjunction with the League of Women Voters of Maryland and the U.S. League, the League of Women Voters of Frederick County (LWVFC) is offering its 2026 primary election Voters’ Guide on the League’s online platform at VOTE411.org. The League will also host in-person and virtual candidate forums for many of the 23 races on the primary ballot this year. Keep an eye on this page for news about dates and times for forums as we nail down our very busy candidates!
VOTE411.org provides nonpartisan candidate information, a place to check voter registration, polling place and drop-box locations, and other election information for all voters nationwide. Most of the information is available in English and Spanish, by toggling between languages using a button on the home page of VOTE411.org. Moreover, VOTE411.org offers voters a chance to read and compare responses to queries about local issues from every candidate who will be on the primary election ballot, except those who chose not to respond to the League’s queries.
VOTE411.org will be live nationwide as of May 9.
The primary election is Tuesday, June 23. Early voting in Frederick County is June 11-18.
Because there are 14 candidates for the four open seats on the Frederick County School Board, the League is dividing those candidates alphabetically among three separate candidate forums in order to give each candidate ample opportunity to respond to the League’s questions. For updates to possible forum changes, and for details on which candidates have confirmed participation in each forum, refer to the calendar page of the League’s website at
https://my.lwv.org/maryland/frederick-county. This is also where the public can learn about additional forums added to the League’s schedule as they are confirmed. The League will provide sign-language interpreters at some of the forums, whenever possible. The forums are all free to attend and open to the public.
All forums will be streamed live on the League’s YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@frederickcountylwv313/streams.
The virtual forums and the in-person forums will be recorded for future viewing at the calendar page of the League’s website at https://my.lwv.org/maryland/frederick-county and at the League’s YouTube channel, noted above.
The schedule of confirmed candidate forums hosted by the League follows. As the League confirms additional forums, details will be on this page. Right here. Links to the different videos will also be added as we complete each forum.
- April 16, Board of Education virtual forum #1: Maria Carrasco, Casey Day, and Jess Douglass. Recording is at https://www.youtube.com/live/vyZQF-C62PI?si=YoyTckJoZlDVoOuw.
- April 22, State Delegate, District 4 Democratic candidates: Jerry Donald, Andrew Duck, Paul Gilligan, and Alleria Stanley, in person at Middletown library. Recording is at https://www.youtube.com/live/Rj7mzdx1eto?si=aM9_VVokwSkwLOHD.
- April 23, Board of Education forum #2: Heather Fletcher, Nathan Foltz, David Migdal. Recording is at https://www.youtube.com/live/i3EtzLh9bvQ?si=x4F7k8zvbKCfTNbo.
- April 28, Board of Education forum #3, virtual forum at 5:00p. Recording is at:
- April 28, Board of Education forum #4, virtual forum at 7:00p. Recording is at:
- May 1, County Council At Large: Renee Knapp, Sam Newhouse, and Brad Young, in person at ERUCC Community Room, 15 West Church Street, Frederick. Recording is at https://www.youtube.com/live/jOkJB5CDawM?si=Wn-uBFIu9HixfE4E.
- May 11, Sheriff, Republicans: Chuck Jenkins and Gary Morton. This forum will be rescheduled.
- May 12, Sheriff, Democrats: Karl Bickel, Jason Cabel Ciemielewski, and Tony Lawson, 5:30p-8-p, in person at ERUCC Community Room, 15 W. Church Street, Frederick.
- May 13, County Council District #2, Democrats: Shelly Beaird-Francois and Jamie Shopland, 6:00 p, Virtual Forum
- May 14, County Council District #2 Republicans: Cancelled. The LWV does not hold forums where only one candidate will participate in the forum.
- May 21, County Council District #3 Democrats: Christian Benford and Natasha Valencia, 6:00 p, Virtual Forum.
- May 26, County Council District 1, Democrats: Jenn Alcorn, Louisa Conklin, and Eric Smothers, 5:30-7:30 p, in person at Richland Golf Club (50 Glenbrook Drive, Middletown).
- May 28, County Executive Republicans: Diane Fouche and William Holtzinger, 6:00 p, Vvirtual Forum.
These forums have not yet been scheduled:
- US Congressional District #6 Democrats: George Gluck, Alexis Goldstein, Daniel Krakower, April McClain Delaney, David Trone, Ethan Wechtaluk, Kiambo “Bo” White, and A. Mark Wilks, in person at ERUCC Community Room, 15 W. Church Street, Frederick
- US Congressional District #6 Republicans: Anita Mpambara Cox, Donald L. Lech, Cheryl Riley, and Michael Yadeta, in person Forum at ERUCC Community Room, 15 W. Church Street, Frederick.
2026 Municipal Elections
TOWN REGISTRATION DEADLINE DATE OF ELECTION
Myersville April 20, 2026 May 11, 2026
Brunswick July 14, 2026 August 4, 2026
Walkersville August 17, 2026 September 14, 2026
(Note: Dates are subject to change. Information is current as of 2/6/2026.)
The MD legislature is now done, we await the Governor's signatures or vetoes on the bills that have been passed. You can find the League of Women Voters of Maryland testimony on bills during the 2026 session at https://www.lwvmd.org/testimony.
You can follow the action on the Maryland govenrment website: Home Page. It can be a confusing and frustrating site to navigate. Please start with the excellent videos about how to use it at: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Information/VideoTutorials.For a more general introduction, see https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Information/Text/about_mga.
