FREDERICK, MD - A Maryland lawmaker held an event in Frederick Thursday to educate clergy about the ballot.
Delegate Kathy Afzali held the 'Know Your Ballot' conference for Western Maryland pastors and religious leaders on the four Maryland referendums.
"Mainly what I'm trying to accomplish is really to educate people, and that's going to be my goal between now and November 6th. It's to get the word out, and people can go to my website, www.delegatekathyafzali.com. In the next few days we'll have a lot of these presentations up," said Afzali, (R) - Frederick County.
Washington County Delegates Andrew Serafini (R) and Neil Parrott (R) joined her. Parrott is chairman of www.mdpetitions.com and organized three of the referendum drives.
"Some of the viewers have signed petitions to get these on the ballot," Afzali said. "One of them has to go to the ballot according to the state constitution, and that's the gambling issue. These are very important issues and ones that really the voters should have the final say on, and then it becomes law."
Afzali wants to make sure pastors know about the legal aspects of the referendums, which include same same marriage, expanding gambling, in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, and congressional redistricting.
"Some of the issues are hard cases, but let's not take hard cases and make them into bad laws in the State of Maryland, and that's exactly what we've done," Afzali said. "We've not used our head, combined with our hearts. We're only using our hearts, and this isn't good policy for the public."
WHAG is doing a series this week on the referendums. You can read about them in depth at our website.
