Petition - Introduction
An act of the General Assembly can be placed on the 2024 General Election ballot by the submission of petitions containing at least 60,157 signatures of Maryland Registered voters.
2025 Statewide Referendum Petition Filing
- Tuesday, May 6, 2025 - Deadline for requesting advance determination of sufficiency of referendum petition format.
- Saturday, May 31, 2025 at 11:59 pm - Deadline for filing one-third of the required number of signatures (20,053) with the Secretary of State.
- Friday, June 20, 2025 - Deadline to verify and count the signatures on the referendum petition.
- Tuesday, June 24, 2025 - Deadline to certify the results of the first submission of the required signatures.
- Monday, June 30, 2025 at 11:59 pm - Deadline for filing the balance of the required number of signatures (40,104) with the Secretary of State.
- Monday, July 21, 2025 - Deadline to verify and count the signatures on the referendum petition.
- Wednesday, July 23, 2025 - Deadline to certify the results of the full referendum petition verification
Additional Information
Maryland law grants the citizens of Maryland certain petition rights. These rights include:
- the ability to bring an Act of the General Assembly to a referendum vote;
- the ability to establish new political parties; and,
- the ability to nominate unaffiliated candidates to the ballot.
From this site you can print the official petition signature gathering forms as well as other documents required to complete a petition. To assist you through the petition process, we offer three sections of questions and answers: Petition Signature Gathering, Petition Verification, and Petition Fund and Campaign Finance Reporting Requirements.
For more information on petitions, please see the Code for Maryland Regulations (COMAR).