A Maryland Senate committee advanced the nomination of a Republican member of the state elections board, a penultimate step ahead of a full chamber vote — without questioning him about his communications with election activists who were trying to stop the 2024 elections.

Senators on the Executive Nominations Committee unanimously approved James Shalleck’s candidacy on Monday. Shalleck has been acting vice chair of the Maryland State Board of Elections since July 2024.

Email threads obtained through public records requests revealed Shalleck and fellow Republican board member Diane Butler had been communicating with an elections activist attempting to use the courts to stop Maryland’s election, which lead the elections board to change its bylaws last year to bar members from communicating with people suing the board.

State lawmakers have taken a much closer look at elections board candidates from both political parties after a former Republican member, Carlos Ayala, who was approved by the committee and confirmed without questioning, was arrested for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Ayala, a Salisbury resident, was among the hundreds pardoned by President Donald Trump after his January inauguration.

The bipartisan committee has started asking candidates where they were on the day an angry mob swarmed the U.S. Capitol attempting to interrupt the election certification.

Sen. Clarence Lam, a Democrat from Howard County, chairs the committee and asked Shalleck Monday whether he had participated in activities questioning the integrity of elections. Shalleck said no. Lam then asked where he was on Jan. 6.

“I was home watching it on TV,” Shalleck said.

Shalleck was appointed last year by Gov. Wes Moore upon a recommendation from the state GOP and began serving as the board’s acting vice chair in July. Shalleck had to wait until lawmakers were in session to complete the vetting process.

Lam said Shalleck had bipartisan support to fill the role designated for an appointee of the Maryland GOP.

“I think with any communication ... if you’re an active member of an important board, like the state board of elections, you should be very cautious about that communication,” he said. “But nothing came up during this hearing.”

Shalleck, who lives in Montgomery County, told senators that during his time on the board over the last several months the body has been unified in their mission to “run safe and fair elections.”

“You would never know at our meetings who are the Republicans and who are the Democrats,” he said.

Communications with election activists

According to dozens of email threads, Shalleck and Butler asked Maryland State Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis questions on behalf of one of the plaintiffs, Kate Strauch Sullivan. Shalleck was also found to have shared bogus election fraud theories on behalf of others with DeMarinis.

At times, they relayed DeMarinis’ answers or internal conversations back to the activists. Nothing in the records indicated they were discussing the lawsuit with Sullivan or others.

Sullivan’s group, Maryland Election Integrity LLC, had asked the courts to halt the 2024 elections, claiming the state elections board had “lost control of the voting system.” A federal appeals court struck down the case, agreeing with a lower court that the plaintiffs lacked standing and failed to prove they suffered any harm.

During an interview in October, Shalleck said he didn’t feel he had done anything wrong by communicating with election activists and that he’d listen to citizens from all parties who bring him their concerns.

He said he was aware of Sullivan’s lawsuit but had never spoken with her about it and does not agree with Sullivan’s take on election security. At the time, Butler said she was not allowed to speak on the record about board matters.

How the board works

The state elections board is responsible for the logistics and administrative decisions in executing elections, from determining where elections can be held to the process for counting ballots. They’re responsible for the security of electronic voting machines, distributing and securing drop boxes and certifying Maryland’s results.

Members are recommended by the state party, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. The board is made up of five members — three from the current governor’s party and two from the other.

Moore initially held back Shalleck’s nomination to the board in 2024 because he was running in an election, according to Maryland Matters. Shalleck was running as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, backing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The attorney and former prosecutor served as Montgomery County’s elections board president and has made unsuccessful attempts at elected office as a Republican in the Democratic stronghold.

Shalleck ran for state office in 2022, when he ran and lost in the Republican primary for Maryland attorney general to Michael Peroutka, an advocate of a second Southern secession with ties to a white supremacist group. Peroutka lost to Anthony Brown.