County Executive hopeful Tonya Sweat loses initial legal challenge over eligibility

A circuit court judge on Monday declined aspiring county executive candidate Tonya Sweat’s request to block the certification of general election ballots, which don’t currently include her name.

Sweat is seeking to challenge County Executive Aisha Braveboy, a Democrat, in November.

“You get what you get when you come in this courthouse. And so, it met my expectations, which weren’t very high,” Sweat, who represented herself, said after the hearing.

She declined to elaborate.

Sweat, a consultant, attorney and community advocate, has sued the Prince George’s County Board of Elections over its determination that she didn’t secure enough signatures to appear on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate.

She asked the court to temporarily block the certification of general election ballots on Monday.

Judge William Snoddy declined Sweat’s request.

The State Board of Elections also certified the ballots and posted them online before Snoddy’s ruling.

Sweat and the county elections board will return to court Thursday for a broader hearing on the matter, in which the judge will make a definitive ruling on Sweat’s case beyond her request for a temporary block of the ballot certification.

Local candidates not affiliated with a political party must submit a petition with signatures from at least 1% of eligible voters in the district they are seeking to represent.

Sweat submitted 6,605 signatures, above the 6,531 that the county elections board required.

But the board rejected about 1,300 of the signatures she submitted, in some cases because the signer wasn’t a registered voter.

Sweat has contended that the local elections board has inflated the required number of signatures by including inactive voters in its count of those eligible in the district.

She also said that based on her team’s analysis, roughly 865 of the signatures the board rejected should have been approved.

But Snoddy said Monday that, even if those signatures were reinstated, Sweat would still be well short of the required amount.

The judge also pushed back on Sweat’s request that he conduct his own assessment of the board’s methods for verifying the signatures.

“It’s their verification process,” he said. “You want me to say that they’re wrong?”

Sweat had also asked the court to order the county elections board to refund her $28.95 filing fee.

The board had refunded $25 as of Monday, and Snoddy ordered it to return the remaining balance.

An attorney for the county elections board declined to comment following Monday’s hearing.

Sweat said she plans to appeal to the Supreme Court of Maryland if she loses her case Thursday.

If she’s unsuccessful in the high court, she plans to run as a write-in candidate.

She’d need to file a certificate of candidacy and other documents by Oct. 15.