We welcome your opinions and letters — with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to us at [email protected].
Shut Out on Election Day
Dear Bay Weekly:
I was one of those “headstrong Independents” your editorial spoke of [Vol. XII, No 11: March 11], and I did change my registration to Democrat, intending to vote in the March 2 primary. I mailed my change of party January 2, 2004, assured that there was “plenty of time,” since Marylanders can register to vote 30 days prior to an election.
Alas, I received a letter stating that my change in party would not be registered until the “books reopened on March 8.”
Apparently, one must notify the Board of Elections of a party change 12 weeks — three months — before an election.
Fair or unfair, please notify all “headstrong Independents” and other parties to make their change long in advance so no one else need be shut out of any election as I, and probably many others, were shut out from the March 2 primary.
—Melanie Kidd, Shady Side
Editor’s note: Reader Kidd is right. It’s not easy to vote in Maryland primaries. The State Board of Elections indeed confirms that Independents and Greens must change their registration to Republican or Democrat 12 weeks in advance of the primary in which they hope to vote. According to the election calendar published on their web site, that date was December 2, long before most Marylanders were thinking primary.
That’s one more way in which Maryland election laws keep voters away from the polls.
Please, More Local History
Dear Bay Weekly:
Enjoy Bay Weekly, but it needs a tie to its heritage, e.g., a column on history! Gary Pendleton: right on. Love Bill Burton. Louis Llovio’s Love Story [Vol. XII, No. 7: Feb. 12] was great.
But why Deale? Galesville: How many Quakers in the cemetery? How did Parrish Creek get its name? Pull us together.
Wouldn’t Greg Stiverson, Grace Brady, historians at St. John’s, etc. provide a free weekly column?
—Karl J. Parrish, Wilmington, Del.
8 Days a Week Brings a Crowd
Dear Bay Weekly:
I was delighted to see you used a picture of Maggie Sansone in 8 Days a Week. We had a good crowd at her concert at the Shady Side Rural Heritage Society, in part, I am sure, because of the good coverage you gave the event.
I thought Vivian Zumstein’s story on the etiquette classes for the little children [“Cotillion,” Vol. XII, No 11: March 11] was very well written, and I enjoyed reading it.
I also liked M.L. Faunce’s feature “Oyster Times” [Vol. XII, No 4: Jan. 22].
—Mavis Daly for the Shady Side Rural Heritage Society
On Message on Max Ochs
Dear Bay Weekly:
Usually I assume that complimentary profiles are part hyperbole, but in the case of Max Ochs, Bay Weekly’s [Vol. XII, No 12: March 18] is all truth. Max is portrayed truly as he is, a peaceful loving man whose entire life is on message. He’d likely blush if you tell him he is an inspiration.
Congratulations both to Max and to writer Lucy Oppenheim.
—Annette Najjar, West River
