Members of the Maryland Board of Elections are now barred from communicating with people who are suing the board, following a rule change approved Thursday.

“To avoid even the appearance of impropriety, Members may not communicate directly or indirectly about any Board matter with members of the public who are in active litigation against the Board. Members of the public affected by this rule who wish to communicate with the Board may do so through legal counsel,” the new rule states.

The change, which the five-member board approved unanimously, comes after reporting by The Baltimore Banner revealed earlier this week that the board’s two Republican members emailed with a leader of an activist group whose lawsuit challenging Maryland elections is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Democratic board member Yaakov “Jake” Weissmann proposed the change to the group’s bylaws after reading the Banner’s reporting.

“I was disturbed by some of the emails,” he said. “I know I speak for all of us when I say that public trust in this board is and needs to be the top priority of all of us, as does trust in one another in this collective and important work that we do together.”

The members whose emails are at the core of the controversy defended their actions.

“We didn't do anything wrong,” said Diane Butler, one of the Republican members. Still, she said she supports changing the board’s rules “in order to dispel any illusions that this board is not committed to impartially overseeing our state elections.”

Board Vice Chairman Jim Shalleck, the other Republican member, said he felt a responsibility to share the litigant’s concerns about election fraud with Jared DeMarinis, state administrator of elections.

“There's a lot of concerns out there, and there's a lot of people that are not happy with the election, and they have concerns,” Shalleck said. “If we don't pass it on to Jared, I mean, how do we deal with these people? Do we just not talk to them? Do we not respond?”

Shalleck proceeded to apologize to his fellow board members, and to clarify that he has never seen any evidence of fraud in Maryland’s elections.

The lawsuit by Maryland Election Integrity claims it found more than 79,000 problems with Maryland’s voter registration rolls, as well as tens of thousands of “apparent voting system errors in counting votes” in past elections. The group has asked a judge to order the state not to proceed with the 2024 election until it corrects the issues.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher rejected the lawsuit in May, just before the primary election, and the group subsequently appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Oct. 15.