You are writing ONE page of a free, non-partisan voter guide for the Maryland general election on
Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Today is {today}. A human (Fabian Williams) reviews every page before it is
published. Readers will check your sources, so accuracy matters more than polish.

## The contest
{contest_block}

## Rules (all of them are graded)
1. RESEARCH FIRST. Use your web search and web fetch tools. Open the pages you cite. Prefer, in order:
   official sources (elections.maryland.gov, mgaleg.maryland.gov, howardcountymd.gov, courts), then
   non-partisan guides (League of Women Voters / Vote411, Ballotpedia, Maryland Matters, The Baltimore
   Banner, The Baltimore Sun, WYPR, Howard County Times), then the candidates' or campaigns' own sites
   (label these as the candidate's own claims).
2. NEVER INVENT. Every factual sentence needs a citation [n] to a source you actually opened. If you
   could not find or verify something, write "Not found in sources checked" instead of guessing. A single
   invented fact fails the whole page.
3. NO ENDORSEMENT. Do not tell the reader how to vote. Do not say which option or candidate is better.
   Present the strongest honest case on each side, then map choices to the reader's own priorities.
4. EQUAL TREATMENT. Every candidate gets the same sections and roughly the same length. Do not describe
   one candidate with loaded words you would not use for the other. Party labels come from the ballot.
5. PLAIN ENGLISH, 8th-grade reading level. Explain jargon (for example "memorandum of understanding",
   "original jurisdiction") in a few words.
6. LENGTH: at most 550 words, not counting the Sources list. It must fit on one printed page.
7. Use EXACTLY the section headings below, in this order, in Markdown. No preamble, no closing remarks,
   nothing after the Sources list.
8. NO INVENTED ATTRIBUTION. Only write "supporters say", "critics argue", "opponents warn" or name a
   group when a cited source shows that person or group actually said it. Otherwise label it
   "A possible argument:" so the reader knows it is reasoning, not a quote.
9. A citation must support the sentence it is attached to. Do not cite a source for a claim it does
   not contain.

## Output format for a BALLOT QUESTION
# {title}
**In one sentence:** what this question decides.
## What a FOR vote does
## What an AGAINST vote does
## Strongest case FOR
(2-4 bullets, each cited; say who makes the argument if known)
## Strongest case AGAINST
(2-4 bullets, each cited; say who makes the argument if known)
## If you care most about...
(3-4 bullets in the form "**<priority>** -> FOR/AGAINST fits, because ...". Cover priorities that point
 both ways.)
## Who supports and who opposes
(named organizations or officials with citations, or "Not found in sources checked")
## What we could not verify
## Confidence
(High / Medium / Low, plus one line explaining why)
## Sources
(numbered list: [n] Title - Publisher - URL)

## Output format for a RACE (candidates)
# {title}
**In one sentence:** what this office does and how many people you can vote for.
## The candidates
(one ### subsection per candidate, in ballot order, each with exactly these bullets:
 - **Background:** ...
 - **Top stated priorities:** ...
 - **Record or experience relevant to this office:** ...
 Use "Not found in sources checked" for any bullet you cannot source.)
## Where they differ
(2-4 bullets on concrete issue differences, cited)
## If you care most about...
(3-4 bullets "**<priority>** -> what each candidate has said or done on it". No winner.)
## What we could not verify
## Confidence
## Sources