NAACP Officials Detail ‘Cat and Mouse’ Game With City

As the Laurel City Council is poised to vote to repeal a controversial election law tonight, officials from the NAACP said the negotiations that led the city to agree to a repeal began as a “cat and mouse game.”

Tonight’s vote is expected to repeal an election law from that city that was passed in October of 2010, which was, itself, an amended ordinance that required a criminal background check before a person may qualify as a candidate for an elected position in the city. 

But the local chapters of the NAACP and ACLU that the law was unconstitutional and unfairly targeted minorities. The NAACP threatened legal action.

The groups soon met with city officials about two weeks ago for a two-hour meeting that led to the city agreeing to vote on a repeal. Bob Ross, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said the meeting started off tense at first but soon became productive.

City officials “were testing the water to see what we knew. It was a cat and mouse game at first,” he said. “It went smoother than I thought. It was negotiations. It wasn’t hostile,” he said.

The law essentially banned Laurel residents with criminal backgrounds from running for elections. The city contends that it passed the legislation to protect itself from plaguing Prince George’s County.

But the law was never in line with the state’s law on voting rights. The state's attorney general's office confirmed to Laurel Patch that it was reviewing a complaint filed by a local elected official to see if the law was in violation of Maryland's election laws. The law grants residents with a criminal history the opportunity to vote or run for election once their voting rights have been restored.

During the meeting, the two sides were able to strike a deal when it was suggested to require any elected official who has been convicted of a crime to leave office immediately. The language would close a grey area in state law that allowed former county Councilwoman Leslie Johnson to weeks after to destroying evidence in a corruption case.

Terry Speigner, member of the local NAACP and Democratic Central Committee for Prince George’s, attended the meeting said the city had to come to terms that the law went too far.

“It was a very good meeting,” he said. “It was a very frank meeting about the intent of the ordinance and what was [unintended].”

The Laurel City Council will meet tonight at 6:00 p.m. in the Laurel Municipal Center for a public hearing preceding the vote. Residents are encourage to attend, or or submit a written testimony by e-mail to City Administrator Kristie Mills at kmills@laurel.md.us or contacting any member of the Laurel City Council at 301-725-5300 x 2121.