The debate over the next nominee will do far more to form the battle lines for the '06 midterm elections than anything involving the Congressional leadership,

They help moderate debate. Their role is to give voters a voice in elections that they may not get through the traditional parties.

Maryland is on the verge of enacting legislation that will ensure transparent elections that voters can trust. When HB 244/SB713 becomes law Maryland will move from a state with the least secure and least transparent election system to a state with one of the most secure and transparent systems.

If nothing else, the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 have shown us that merely increasing the turnout of our base Democratic vote is not enough. With three conservative voters for every two liberals, the sheer arithmetic truth is that in a polarized electorate effectively mobilized by both major parties, Democratic candidates must capture upwards of 60 percent of the moderate vote. A candidate that cannot win south of the Mason-Dixon and west of the Mississippi is only destined to repeat the heartbreaking losses of the recent presidential elections.

And that's what this bill is all about: assuring that each and every voter can have confidence in our elections and that when problems do arise, there can be a determination made about them -- what went wrong and how to correct it so that every vote is counted.

There are only three elections, and they are obviously in very different parts of the state. But we, hopefully, will be able to glean some information from the results of these elections.