Md. Board of Elections names successor to longtime administrator Lamone

The Maryland State Board of Elections on Thursday voted unanimously for Jared DeMarinis, the director of candidacy and campaign finance for the last 18 years, to be the state’s next chief election official.

DeMarinis will replace longtime Administrator of Elections Linda Lamone on Sept. 1. His nomination will be submitted for confirmation during the 2024 General Assembly session.

“Voting is, of course, a sacred right that has been fought for with each and every generation, and this period has some of the greatest advances in technology to help assist us in making sure that everybody has the ability to vote,” DeMarinis said after thanking the board members for the “tremendous honor and privilege and opportunity” to administer the state’s elections.

DeMarinis said that technological advances have also brought peril to voting that election officials must be proactive in dealing with, especially “dis-, mis- and mal-information,” which he said are the top threats to voting and democracy.

He said he particularly wants to work with local boards of elections to ensure “that every Marylander has the right to vote, and with ease.”

Lamone said in March that she planned to retire after 25 years as the state’s top election official, a tenure that included surviving an attempt from Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich to remove her from the role. Democrats, who controlled the legislature, blocked the move, according to The Associated Press.

Lawmakers later passed what opponents called the “Linda Lamone for Life Act,” which allowed an election administrator to continue serving after being voted out until the Board of Elections appointed a successor and the state Senate confirmed them.

Board of Elections members were also required to provide an administrator with written charges of the grounds for their dismissal and grant them a chance to defend themselves before the board.

During the legislative session that wrapped up in April, lawmakers made it easier for the board to remove an administrator, a process that now requires just a vote from four of the five members.

More recently, Lamone remained in the position after calls from former Republican Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford and former Comptroller Peter Franchot for her to step down after the 2020 primary election.

DeMarinis is expected to receive a pay bump from the $117,000 he made in 2022. Lamone’s salary last year as the state’s elections administrator was $163,000, according to Timothy Zink, spokesman for the Comptroller of Maryland.

The state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 lists a salary range for the position between $120,000 and more than $166,000.

DeMarinis has become the face of the agency for lawmakers, advocates and members of the public, said Sky Woodward, one of five Board of Elections members.

As the candidacy and campaign finance director, DeMarinis has been responsible for overseeing how candidates and organizations collect, spend and report their money.

Woodward said the board was particularly impressed during the interview process with how DeMarinis has run the Candidacy and Campaign Finance Division — with a premium on customer service and a nonpartisan approach.

She said DeMarinis stood out for his “passion for a nonpartisan approach to elections, his vision for the State Board of Elections, energy for cooperation and innovative solution-based approaches [for] things that will have to be advanced in the next, really the next realm of the State Board of Elections.”

The board, Woodward said, also noted DeMarinis’s experience and reputation on national and international levels, including his longtime role as a member of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, a professional organization for government agencies and other organizations working in ethics, elections, freedom of information, lobbying and campaign finance, according to its website.

DeMarinis helped draft a bill in 2013 that overhauled Maryland’s campaign finance laws and the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws recognized him as a leader in identifying how to regulate new technologies in campaigns, including the use of social media, internet advertisements by campaign accounts and political contributions by text message.

DeMarinis has also served as an international election monitor in Estonia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas and North Macedonia, according to the Board of Elections.