Commercial buildings along Howard Street in downtown Baltimore. Photo: Baltimore Heritage from Baltimore, MD, USA, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Unofficial returns show Baltimore City voters approving Question G, the charter amendment on franchises and minor privileges.
The State Board of Elections’ unofficial results for Baltimore City list 111,235 votes for the amendment, or 76.13 percent, and 34,874 against, or 23.87 percent, with all 295 election-day precincts reported. The page is still marked unofficial.
The city’s Board of Elections and the unofficial results page title the question Franchises and Minor Privileges. The official ballot text says the amendment would add the city’s stormwater system to the list of city property that cannot be sold or rented out as a franchise, and would clarify that space in the conduit system can be rented as a franchise while the conduit system itself still cannot be sold. It would also simplify general franchise provisions, allow minor privileges to be granted by an executive agency under a process set by ordinance instead of by the Board of Estimates, and drop obsolete charter language on street railways and trackless trolleys.
If the unofficial count is certified, the official text sets two effective dates: Dec. 3, 2026, for most of the changes, and Nov. 7, 2028, for charter sections that are removed, unless an ordinance or regulation on that subject is adopted sooner.
