Montgomery County's proposed "Stop the Spend" spending cap will not appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Associate Judge Marybeth Ayres ruled from the bench Thursday, Sept. 3, at the Circuit Court in Rockville, upholding the Board of Elections' decision that the petition fell 302 valid signatures short of the 10,000 required. The ruling, which lasted roughly one hour, ended a weeks-long legal fight over whether hundreds of rejected signatures should have counted.

"The Board of Elections' ultimate conclusion is supported by substantial evidence that the Committee did not meet the 10,000-signature standard," Ayres said from the bench Thursday, according to Montgomery Community Media.

The charter amendment, pushed by the Committee to Control Montgomery County Spending, would have required all 11 County Council members to approve any budget that grew faster than the regional rate of inflation. Under the current charter, seven votes are enough.

The Board of Elections reviewed 14,074 total signatures submitted in two batches in July and validated 9,698. The committee's attorney, Joseph Sandler, challenged 329 of the 4,376 rejected signatures in court, arguing most were tossed over problems with the circulator's affidavit rather than anything the voter did wrong.

Ayres agreed with the board's rejection of at least 131 of those 329 signatures, Bethesda Magazine reported. She noted that 32 of the contested signatures belonged to people who signed more than once, did not live in the county or were not registered voters.

Board of Elections President David Naimon said in a public post after the ruling that it supported the nonpartisan work of Election Director Boris Brajkovic and staff, Moderately MOCO reported.

County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat who opposed the amendment during the petition drive, welcomed the ruling in a statement. Elrich said giving any single council member the power to block a budget could hurt schools, emergency services and other programs.

He pointed to the county's Triple-A bond ratings from Moody's, S&P Global and Fitch as evidence the county does not have a fiscal discipline problem. Elrich said he plans to spend the next two years using budget forums and community meetings to explain what the proposal would do before the committee tries again.

The committee said in a press release Sept. 3 that it was disappointed but plans to begin collecting signatures for the 2028 ballot in early 2027. The committee argued that signatures were rejected for what it called minor technical reasons, including questions about dates, middle initials, handwriting and abbreviations used by petition circulators.

Mark Lautman chairs the committee. Reardon Sullivan, the Republican nominee for County Council District 1, originated the initiative and remains involved in an advisory role.

As of the end of July, the committee had raised $123,000 and spent about $111,000, according to disclosure reports filed with the State Board of Elections. More than 70% came from Sullivan: his Rockville-based firm, WFT Engineering, contributed $80,000, and Sullivan personally donated $8,000.

The Maryland State Board of Elections certified the content of the Nov. 3 general election ballots on Aug. 31, three days before the ruling. Whether the committee will appeal remains unclear.