Baltimore City Council members, union leaders, religious groups and community organizations on Sunday called on voters to reject a ballot initiative to cut the number of council districts, asserting that the measure would weaken the democratic process.

People for Elected Accountability and Civic Engagement, or PEACE, collected enough signatures to get the proposal on the ballot. Question H would decrease the number of council districts from 14 to eight.

David Smith, executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group and owner of The Baltimore Sun, is the sole financial backer behind the push. He’s spent $415,000 this election cycle on the cause.

Speaking at a news conference at Zeke’s Coffee on Harford Road near Southern Avenue in Northeast Baltimore, Councilmember Zeke Cohen said he and his colleagues in the last 1½ years have knocked on thousands of doors.

“I heard loud and clear, Baltimoreans want better city services; they want safety; they want stronger schools,” said Cohen, the Democratic nominee for council president. “I didn’t hear not but one time, ‘I want less representation.’”

The chairman of PEACE, Jovani Patterson, said the group is advocating for a more streamlined and effective government and described the assertion that the ballot initiative would weaken democracy as a “salacious claim.”

“It’s not about reducing representation, and it’s clearly not a threat to democracy,” said Patterson, who noted that more than 20,000 people signed the petition for the proposed charter amendment. “This is actually an example of democracy at work.”

The population of Baltimore, he said, has been shrinking while the size of the council remains the same. Patterson previously ran for council president as a Republican.

The ballot initiative is a continued attack on City Council like the effort that established term limits, which weaken Black political power, said Courtney Jenkins, president of the Metropolitan Baltimore Council of AFL-CIO Unions.

The measure, he said, would make it more expensive for women and people of color to run for office. Jenkins also warned that the initiative could pave the way for the privatization of city services and help developers and investors secure sweetheart deals.

The Rev. Kevin Slayton Sr., pastor of Northwood Appold United Methodist Church, said he had just left the pulpit and was not averse on Sundays to speaking truth to power.

A larger part of his job, he said, is to discuss heaven and hell.

“Let’s focus on hell,” Slayton said. “Because the H in this legislation, I want to remind you, is to say, ‘Hell no.’”

Slayton described the effort as inequitable, unfair and unthoughtful.

Meanwhile, Christy Frink, a member of Baltimore for Democracy, a grassroots coalition and ballot issue committee that opposes the proposed charter amendment, said community work is vital and exhausting.

One of the most important supports as volunteer leaders, she said, is access to councilmembers.

Frink said “a wealthy businessman who doesn’t even live here” was “pouring money into making our jobs harder.” Smith wrote in an op-ed in The Sun that the ballot initiative is “not some scheme to consolidate power.”

“I believe in this city,” Frink said, “and I believe we deserve better.”

Since 1999, voters have rejected only one ballot question put before them. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Before they left to talk to voters, people gathered for a group photo on the cues of “No to H!” and “Hell no to H!”

Editor’s note: This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.