Senate passes emergency Voting Rights Act for counties, municipalities

The Maryland Senate on Feb. 10 passed Senate Bill 255, the Voting Rights Act of 2026 for counties and municipal corporations, on third reading as an emergency measure. The clerk called the roll and "with 30 votes in the affirmative, Senate Bill 255 having received the constitutional majority is declared passed." The presiding officer then noted the desk was clear.

Senate Bill 255 appeared on the third-reading calendar as an emergency bill. The clerk’s announcement recorded the vote total; no floor debate on the bill’s merits was printed in the transcript leading into the roll call. The passage means the bill has cleared final passage in the Senate as recorded that day.

The transcript records this action as a formal final-passage vote; the bill was declared passed in the chamber after the roll call. The transcript does not include additional text of the bill or the next procedural step toward enactment within the provided segment, and details about the bill’s specific provisions beyond its short caption in the calendar were not stated in the recorded exchange.