The Citizens in Charge Foundation, a Virginia-based voter rights group, has awarded the Howard County Citizens for Open Government with its December John Lilburne Award.

The award, presented each month to people or groups working to defend the right to petition, is named after a 17th-century English pamphleteer and political activist.

Howard County Citizens for Open Government was recognized for its efforts to overturn a Board of Elections decision invalidating more than 80 percent of the signatures on a petition to block the construction of a grocery store at Turf Valley. 

Residents hoped to take the County Council’s approval of the store to referendum on the November 2010 election ballot.

However, the election board concluded that the majority of the signatures were invalid because they failed to completely match the name on a signer’s voter registration card.

Paul Jacob, president of Citizens in Charge, called the matching requirement burdensome.

“If the court doesn’t overrule this interpretation, Marylanders will have no right to referendum, even though their state constitution guarantees it,” Jacob said in a statement.

On Nov. 13 the group’s case was heard during a civil, non-jury trial in Howard County Circuit Court.

Judge Timothy McCrone said he will issue a written opinion on the matter at an unspecified later date.

— Sarah Breitenbach

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