Voters Already Decided on Term Limits...

Question K was the very last question on the ballot in Baltimore’s 2022 election, yet it received significantly more voter participation than many questions and races that appeared before it. In other words, voters didn’t accidentally stumble into supporting term limits. They intentionally stayed engaged all the way to the bottom of the ballot and voted for it in overwhelming numbers.

That’s what makes Councilman Ryan Dorsey’s argument so troubling.

By suggesting there was insufficient “public discourse” and implying voters didn’t fully understand what they were approving, he is effectively dismissing the judgment of tens of thousands of Baltimore residents who made a deliberate choice at the ballot box.

Baltimore voters passed Question K, the city’s term limits measure, with more than 98,000 votes and over 71% support. Yet now, less than four years later, some members of the City Council want residents to reverse that decision because they personally disagree with it.

Think about the arrogance behind that.

If this logic applies to Question K, couldn’t the same argument be made about any election, including the elections that put current council members into office? Did voters fully understand every candidate they voted for? Did every voter attend forums, study policy positions, or participate in lengthy public debates?

Of course not. That’s not how democracy works.

Voters make decisions based on the information available to them and what they believe is best for their city. Sometimes politicians win those debates. Sometimes they lose.

But apparently, when Baltimore voters supported term limits, their decision suddenly became something certain elected officials feel entitled to “correct.”

That mindset is exactly why term limits exist in the first place.

Term limits are designed to prevent elected officials from becoming too comfortable, too entitled, and too convinced that they alone know what is best for everyone else. Public office is supposed to be service, not ownership.

And then there’s Dorsey’s claim that he “didn’t like the way it happened.”

Which part exactly didn’t he like?

Was it the part where citizens gathered more than 20,000 signatures to place Question K on the ballot?

Was it the part where ordinary Baltimore residents, petitioned, campaigned, and convinced voters across the city?

Or was it the part where voters overwhelmingly approved it?

Baltimore’s charter petition process exists specifically so citizens can bring issues directly to voters instead of waiting for permission from elected officials.

Will Ryan Dorsey say the petition process itself should be removed from the charter next? Where does it end?

And the election data completely undermines the argument that voters were confused.

Question K was the LAST question on the ballot.

Yet despite being at the very bottom, it received more participation than several ballot questions placed before it.

Question K received 138,133 total votes, with only 7,877 undervotes. That means nearly 95% of people who cast ballots stayed engaged all the way to the bottom and intentionally voted on term limits.

Meanwhile, several races and questions higher on the ballot had far more people skip them:

• Sheriff had over 25,000 undervotes

• Clerk of the Circuit Court had over 27,000 undervotes

• Register of Wills had over 26,000 undervotes

So the numbers tell a very different story than Ryan Dorsey does.

Baltimore voters cared enough about term limits to specifically complete that question at one of the highest participation rates on the ballot.

This was not confusion. This seems very intentional.

And now, less than four years later, some members of the political class affected by term limits want voters to “rethink” their decision.

Baltimore voters already made their decision.

This article was published in The Baltimore Sun on 5/16/2026