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March 28, 2023

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

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Biden Wins Talbot County in Final Unofficial Count; First Dem Victory Here Since 1964

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Joe Biden has eked out a narrow victory in Talbot County, according to the final unofficial results, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win here since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson took the county during his landslide over Republican Barry Goldwater.

Election officials conducted the final canvassing on Friday, when mail-in ballots could be received until 10 a.m.

Biden has 11,062 votes (49%) to 10,946 (48.5%) for President Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent, as of the final unofficial count.

The shift in results over time mirrors similar trends seen nationwide — Trump supporters voted in person (whether on Election Day or during early voting); the majority of Biden voters opted to vote by mail. Nearly 77% of Talbot’s votes for Trump were in person; about 57% of Biden’s votes were by mail.

In Talbot County, early voting was the most popular choice with more than 10,000 voters casting ballots in the days before Election Day. More than 8,500 county residents cast mail-in ballots, an option urged by the Biden campaign due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 2,900 voters went to the polls on Election Day.

Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton by about 7 percentage points. Clinton got 42.1% of Talbot’s vote in 2016; Trump had 52.2%.

In 2012 and 2008, Barack Obama had similar margins of defeat in the county as Clinton. He lost Talbot by more than 12 percentage points against Mitt Romney in 2012; by about 10 percentage points against John McCain in 2008.

Republican George W. Bush won Talbot by nearly 20 percentage points against Democrats John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000.

What Will We Know and When Will We Know it on Tuesday (Or Later)?

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With record voter turnout, including a high volume of mail-in ballots, and mail delays expected, it is unclear whether we will know who the next president is on election night, experts say.

“I’ve been expecting the unexpected,” said Michael Hanmer, research director at the Center for American Politics and Citizenship, a nonpartisan research center at the University of Maryland, College Park. “I think that’s the best way to work through this because there’s so many different possibilities.”

However, Hanmer told Capital News Service it’s “pretty safe to say” that Democratic nominee Joe Biden is headed for a significant popular vote margin over President Donald Trump. But, similar to 2016, determining the next occupant of the Oval Office is going to come down to the Electoral College – and it’s possible this year that may not be settled until some days after Tuesday.

As of Friday morning, nearly 83.5 million early votes were already cast, of which nearly 54 million, or 64.6%, were mailed, according to the University of Florida’s United States Elections Project.

But in many states, including four of eight battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — ballots are not allowed to be counted until Election Day.

Twenty-one states, plus the District of Columbia, accept ballots up to 17 days after Election Day. Of these, two are battleground states: Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

New York and Alaska, which accept mail-in ballots 7 and 10 days after Election Day, respectively, have said that they will not report “any mail votes on election night,” according to the New York Times.

In the battleground state of Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has estimated her count may be completed by Nov. 6, three days after Election Day. Pennsylvania, another battleground, may get the bulk of its votes tallied within a couple of days, according to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar.

But the nation might not have to wait too long because “we’ll have a lot of information about a couple of really key states (on election night),” particularly Florida and Arizona, where mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day, Hanmer said.

“That might allow us to project forward what’s going to happen in a definitive way,” he said.

“I think really the only state that (Hilary) Clinton won (in 2016) that (Donald) Trump has a shot at is Nevada and it’s a relatively small number of electoral votes, so I don’t think Trump can win without Florida,” Hanmer he said.

While a Biden win in Florida would suggest that he’s going to win in both popular and electoral votes, turning Arizona blue would not make results as clear, according to Hanmer. If Biden gets Arizona, it can foreshadow a national victory by a huge margin or a close race determined by few electoral votes for either candidate, he said.

However, FiveThirtyEight’s presidential forecast predicts that if Biden wins Florida or Arizona, he has a 99% and 98% chance, respectively, for an Electoral College win.

Hanmer, who also is a government and politics professor at Maryland and an expert for MIT’s Election Data & Science Lab, expects that “we should know a good bit” about Georgia, which has an Election Day deadline for mail-in ballots, and North Carolina, as well.

While North Carolina accepts ballots after Election Day, the state has seen a high volume of early voting. FiveThirtyEight’s founder Nate Silver reported that “it’s expected that as much as 80% of the vote there can be announced shortly after polls close.”

If those go to Biden, Hanmer predicts that the country won’t “have to worry as much about what the count is going to be in some of the states that are processing late because I think that will largely solidify things in terms of us having a clear winner.”

If Biden wins Georgia, his chances for an electoral win is 99%, while grabbing North Carolina, pushes the probability over 99%, according to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential forecast.

In the case that Georgia and North Carolina do not go to Biden, Hanmer said “we might just have to wait until all the counting is done.” Then the results can “really hinge” on Pennsylvania, where “we’re just not going to have solid information on what the result is…for a while because they can’t count or process their ballots until very late,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly called for final results to be called on election night, in part due to his distrust in mail-in voting – even though he did it himself this year.

“Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd,” he tweeted Monday night.

That kind of rhetoric is inappropriate, warned the National Council on Election Integrity, a bipartisan group of former elected officials.

“Our Constitution and our state election laws require us to count every vote, including legally cast absentee votes,” the council said in a statement Wednesday. “Because of an unprecedented number of absentee ballots this year, counting every vote is not likely to be concluded on election night. In some states, thorough vote counting can last weeks, even in the best of times.”

Almost half of returned mail ballots in 19 states that report party registration data, including Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, were from registered Democrats, according to the Elections Project. On the other hand, 60% of Trump supporters told the Pew Research Center in late summer that they would rather vote in person on Election Day.

On election night, this could mean that in states that report mail-in ballots first, initial results may favor Biden. In places that report in-person, day-of votes first, such as most parts of Virginia, Trump may seem to have the lead.

While this pattern in which ballots received post-election favor Democrats is well-established, Walter Shapiro, in an analysis for the Brennan Center for Justice, warns that the pandemic may disrupt this trend “since different demographic groups may be voting by mail.”

In key states, the Republican Party wants to prevent this “blue shift” while Democrats are relying on it. However, research reported by MIT News shows that historically, even “some of the biggest post-Election Day shifts” — the largest being 6.9% in 1968 towards George Wallace in Georgia — have not tipped the outcome of the election.

Yet both parties have fought over mail-in ballot deadlines in the Supreme Court, and such legal back-and-forth, which may continue after Election Day, could further delay results in critical states.

Last week, the Supreme Court denied the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s request to reject ballots if received after Election Day. In a 4-4 decision, the court ruled that the battleground state can accept ballots if received within three days after Election Day. After the party asked the court to reconsider the decision, the justices let their earlier ruling stand.

Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court backed a lower-court ruling and similarly allowed North Carolina to accept mail-in ballots up to nine days after Election Day, extending the deadline to Nov. 12.

However, an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to also extend the mail-in ballot deadline by three days to Nov. 6 was first accepted by a federal district court, but then blocked by an appeals court. The Supreme Court voted 5 to 3 on Monday to uphold the appeals court.

Another blow to Democrats came on Thursday when a federal appeals court struck down Minnesota’s plan to accept mail-in ballots up to seven days after election. The key state will now only be able to accept ballots received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

While states can continue contesting mail-in ballot deadlines and bring them to the Supreme Court — which Hanmer told CNS wouldn’t be surprising — “the court sent a pretty strong signal that changing things now, given how deep we are into the process, is unlikely,” he said.

He predicts that legal challenges after the election are “more likely,” and so are anger, disbelief and protests from supporters on both sides.

“It seems very odd to say that about a presidential election in the United States, but there’s a lot of signals that suggests that large portions are not going to accept well the outcome either way,” Hanmer said.

“What people do about that, I think, is a big unknown,” he said. “But it’s something we have to prepare for.”

The National Council on Election Integrity counseled patience and trust: “Every ballot cast in accordance with applicable laws must be counted — that’s the American way. All Americans, including the presidential candidates themselves, have a patriotic duty to be patient as election officials count the votes. Both candidates have a responsibility to remind the country that November 3 is the last day for votes to be cast — not the last day for votes to be counted.”

By Kaanita Iyer

More Than Half of Md.’s Voters Have Already Cast Ballots

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Just over 2 million ballots had been cast in Maryland by Sunday morning, according to data from the State Board of Elections, meaning roughly half of the state’s 4.1 million electorate has voted so far.

A total of 780,635 Marylanders had voted early after polls closed on Saturday night, according to state data. Combined with the 1,234,806 mail-in ballots returned to local boards of elections so far, 2.015 million ballots have been cast in the state so far.

And by 4 p.m. Sunday, state election officials reported that an additional 55,839 early votes had come in. That would mean that more than half of Maryland’s 4.1 million eligible active voters have cast their ballots so far, without even including provisional ballots.

In 2016, there were 876,843 early votes cast in the state. With more than 830,000 early votes cast by 4 p.m. on Sunday, and with an entire day of early voting left until Election Day, it’s possible that 2020’s early voting count will eclipse early voting in the 2016 presidential election.

Although Marylanders have turned out in record-breaking numbers to vote early, Saturday saw a significant drop in the amount of ballots cast at early voting centers. Not including provisional ballots, 70,707 Marylanders turned out to vote early on Saturday. By comparison, more than 152,000 turned out on the first day of early voting – not including provisional ballots.

With provisional ballots included, more than 161,000 turned out to the polls on the first day of early voting. That broke a single-day early voting turnout record in the state, according to election officials.

Montgomery County Election Officials put out calls for more voters on social media Sunday, reporting that there were “zero lines and zero wait” at the Praisner Community Recreation Center in Burtonsville.

Today is the final day of early voting in Maryland. The state’s 81 early voting centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

There will be more than 300 in-person voting centers open throughout Maryland on Tuesday, Election Day. The centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters can report to any voting center in the county where they live.

By Bennett Leckrone

Elections Officials’ Advice: Bring Mail-in Ballots to Drop Boxes

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With reports of slow mail delivery across the country, Maryland election officials are urging voters to return their mail-in ballots at drop-boxes throughout the state instead of using the Postal Service.

Maryland State Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone said in a statement that she doesn’t think voters who already cast their ballots by mail should worry, but said using a drop box will ensure ballots are counted on time. Mail-in ballots need to be postmarked by Nov. 3, and will need to get to election officials by Nov. 13 to be counted.

“While we don’t anticipate any issue with ballots already cast by mail, we are closely monitoring reports from the United States Postal Service that delivery times continue to be considerably longer than normal,” Lamone said. “In light of this, as we approach Election Day, we encourage voters to drop off their ballot at an authorized drop box. This will allow them to be confident their vote will be received and counted in a timely fashion.”

A total of 284 ballot drop-off boxes are scattered throughout the state for the upcoming election, including outside of every early voting center. Voters have until 8 p.m. on Election Day to use the drop-off boxes.

On Monday, the first day of early voting in Maryland, voters waiting in line at jurisdictions across the state told Maryland Matters that fears over Postal Service delays led them to cast their ballots in person.

The warning from state election officials came on the same day that Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, slammed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over mail delays.

In a release, the pair blamed DeJoy for the slow mail delivery. DeJoy previously came under fire for a slew of operational changes at the Postal Service that led to mail delays over the summer, including slashed overtime and the removal of mail sorting machines from facilities across the country.

DeJoy, a wealthy donor to President Trump, said he’d postpone any “longstanding operational initiatives” until after the election. Maloney and Connolly, however, say DeJoy hasn’t done enough to prepare the Postal Service for the election.

“Despite his assurances, the Postmaster General has failed to fix the problems he created and cannot be relied on for the on-time delivery of Election Mail,” Maloney said. “At this point, Americans should either vote in person or drop their ballot in an official drop box to avoid their ballots not being delivered on time.”

More than 1.6 million Marylanders requested mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election, according to data from the State Board of Elections. As of Wednesday, more than 1.07 million of those ballots have been returned to local boards of elections.

Marylanders who requested a mail-in ballot can still cast an in-person provisional ballot if they choose. If local boards of elections receive a mail-in ballot and a provisional ballot from the same voter, however, only the mail-in ballot will be counted.

On Wednesday alone, 159,246 Marylanders had cast in-person early voting ballots or provisional ballots. On Monday, the state saw a single-day early voting turnout record shattered as more than 161,000 voters flocked to the polls. Tuesday saw more than 153,000 voters casting early or provisional ballots.

By Bennett Leckrone

Everything You Wanted to Know About General Election Voting in Md.

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The 2020 presidential general election will be unprecedented in many ways. From mail-in ballot applications to voting center shakeups, here’s what you need to know as Nov. 3 looms:

How can I register to vote for the Nov. 3 election?

You can register to vote online, or you can submit a voter registration form to your local board of elections or the State Board of Elections.

The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election is Oct. 13.

You’re eligible to register to vote in Maryland if you’re a U.S. citizen, Maryland resident and at least 16 years old, although you won’t be able to vote unless you will be at least 18 years old by the next general election.

How can I tell who’s on my ballot?

You can view a sample ballot via Maryland’s online voter lookup system. You can find out more about the candidates on your ballot and local elected officials by searching Ballotpedia, a nonprofit, nonpartisan online political encyclopedia.

Will I automatically receive a mail-in ballot?

No. If you are a registered voter, you are slated to receive an application for a mail-in ballot in the mail. While registered voters automatically received a mail-in ballot in the state’s June 2 primary election, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) ordered that registered voters receive mail-in ballot applications for the Nov. 3 election.

Where can I apply for a mail-in ballot?

You can apply for a mail-in ballot online if you have a Maryland Driver’s License or state-issued identification card. If you are registered to vote, you are also set to receive a ballot application in the mail. You can complete and return that application by mail for free, or fill out the form at your local board of elections. Many local boards have closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic, so be sure to contact your local board before attempting to apply in person.

If you applied online and still received a mailed application form, you may not have to return it. You can check your application status via Maryland’s online voter lookup system.

Can I request an emailed ballot?

You may choose to have your ballot delivered to you electronically, although you will have to print and return the ballot.

State Board of Elections members have asked that Marylanders use mailed ballots instead of ones printed at home. Ballots printed at home need to be hand-copied by a bipartisan team of election judges onto official forms that can be processed by the state’s voting machines, officials say, delaying election results.

Will my ballot and application postage be paid for?

Yes — unless you request your ballot be delivered to you electronically, which requires you to print it at home.

Postage on ballots and applications will be paid for by the state and local boards, although election officials recently requested that the state foot the bill for all of the postage to take the burden off of local boards. That issue has yet to be resolved.

What’s the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot?

The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot for the Nov. 3 election is Oct. 20.

When will I receive my ballot application?

Ballot applications are already being sent to registered voters. If you applied online or already returned your mail-in ballot request form, you can check the status of your application online using the voter lookup system.

Is mail-in voting secure?

Deputy Election Administrator Nikki Charlson noted that mail-in voting, which state officials called absentee voting up until this year, has been around in Maryland for decades. She said state officials have “very mature” procedures for tracking mail-in ballots, and use constant audits to ensure mail-in ballots are counted and processed correctly.

Charlson also said ballot drop-off boxes, which will be deployed across Maryland in the coming months, are made from 400 pounds of galvanized steel and are under 24-hour surveillance.

The amount of fraud in mail-in elections is miniscule: A Washington Post analysis of mail-in elections found just 372 possible cases of voter fraud out of about 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the 2016 and 2018 general elections — a rate of about 0.0025%.

Can I track my mail-in ballot?

You’ll be able to track your ballot’s status through Maryland’s online voter lookup system. You can also use the Postal Service tracking number to see the status of your ballot’s delivery.

If you choose to return a ballot by mail, you’ll need to make sure your envelope is postmarked on or before Nov. 3. Your ballot must be received by your local board of elections by 10 a.m. on Nov. 13.

Will the Postal Service be able to deliver my ballot in time?

Delays in mail delivery resulting from Postal Service policy changes by President Trump’s appointed Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, recently ignited concerns about mail-in ballot delivery in the upcoming election. U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) charged at an Aug. 17 news conference in Baltimore that Trump and DeJoy are attempting to sabotage the Postal Service.

“They’re trying to make it harder for people to vote,” Cardin said. “That’s unconscionable in a democracy.”

State Board of Elections Chairman Michael C. Cogan (R) said at an Aug. 19 board meeting that he has full confidence that postal workers will step up to ensure a smooth November election.

“The United States Postal Service was terrific in their service in the June election,” Cogan said. “They worked extremely hard to support us, and to ensure that things got done. There’s no reason to expect that we will not see the same level of service in November.”

Postal workers have likewise urged the public to “keep the faith” and support the Postal Service as the Nov. 3 election looms. Charlson said election staff are working closely with the Postal Service, but urged voters to submit their mail-in ballots as early as possible to avoid delays.

How else can I turn in my mail-in ballot?

Election officials plan to deploy ballot drop-off boxes throughout the state. It’s not yet clear exactly where those boxes will be deployed, as local boards of elections are still preparing for the upcoming election. This article will be updated when a list of locations becomes available.

You can also hand-deliver your mail-in ballot to your local board of elections by 8 p.m. on Nov 3. Or you can drop off your ballot at an early voting center, an Election Day vote center or a polling place by the time the polls close.

Can I vote in person?

Yes, but it won’t look like a traditional polling location. Hogan recently approved a State Board of Elections plan to open larger, limited in-person voting centers on election day. There will be at least 360 voting centers open across the state for the Nov. 3 election.

Maryland’s roughly 80 early voting centers will also be open for the upcoming election. Early voting in Maryland will take place between Oct. 26 and Nov. 2, state election officials decided at an Aug. 12 meeting. Those centers will remain open on Election Day.

Early voting and Election Day voting centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and voters waiting in line at 8 p.m., when polls are supposed to close, will still be allowed to vote.

Where is my polling place?

A list of voting centers for early voting and Election Day will be linked here as soon as locations are finalized. Local boards of elections are still working to nail down locations for the Nov. 3 election.

Voting centers don’t operate like precincts, and you won’t need to go to a specific location to cast your ballot — as long as the one you visit is in the jurisdiction where you reside.

Should I go to the polling center on my voter registration card?
 
Some voter registration cards might contain an outdated polling place. Election officials are still in the process of approving early voting and Election Day voting centers, and you’ll soon be able to check those locations online.
Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery County) said she received a card that listed her November polling locations as the Julius West Middle School in Rockville. That school won’t be used as a voting center in the upcoming election, according to Montgomery County’s recently-approved plan. Kagan said some of her constituents also received outdated information on their voter registration cards.
You’ll be able to go to any voting center in your area to cast your ballot, as they aren’t precinct-level locations.

What precautions are in-person voting centers taking to keep voters, poll workers and other visitors healthy?

Charlson said voting centers will be incorporating social distancing measures for the November election. Voters will be more spread out, and election judges will be provided with personal protective equipment.

How do I sign up to be an election judge?

You can sign up to be an election judge online. The position is paid, and you must be a registered voter to qualify.

You must also be physically and mentally able to work at least a 15-hour day, be willing to work outside your home precincts, be able to sit or stand for an extended period and be able to speak, read and write English.

Election judges must be at least 16 years old, although if you are 16 you will need permission from a parent or guardian.

Some counties are looking for judges from specific parties. Allegany County is looking for Democratic election judges, while Baltimore City and Baltimore, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Talbot Counties need more Republican judges.

Local boards of elections faced a massive shortage of election judges prior to the switch to voting centers, and there are still vacant positions throughout the state. 

Will all of the results be up on election night?

Charlson said voters shouldn’t expect a traditional election night. Like the June primary, Charlson said it may take some time before winners can be declared. She said election officials will release the results from early voting, and the results of already-counted mail-in ballots, when the polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

By Bennett Leckrone

Elections Officials Believe They Have Enough Judges Lined Up to Staff Polling Places

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Maryland’s local boards of elections now have enough election judges to staff Election Day voting centers, but state officials say the search for new judges is far from over.

A surge of state workers, coupled with a need for fewer election judges after the switch to voting centers, means local boards of elections now have enough staff for the Nov. 3 election, Deputy Elections Administrator Nikki Charlson said during a Friday afternoon State Board of Elections meeting.

Local election boards faced thousands of vacant positions after Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) last month ordered a more conventional election for the fall. The prospect of opening every polling center during a global pandemic left election officials scrambling to recruit election judges, and looking to consolidate polling centers due to the lack of staff.

After Hogan approved a switch from thousands of precinct-level polling centers to roughly 370 larger voting centers, and efforts to incentivize state workers to sign up as judges, local boards now say they’re well staffed.

But Charlson said local election officials are now looking to “build up their bench” with extra election judges, in case of a second wave of COVID-19 hits the state or there is a sudden need for additional workers. State Board Chairman Michael C. Cogan (R) urged voters to continue signing up to be election judges as the November election approaches.

Some counties are looking for judges from specific political parties. Allegany County is looking for Democratic election judges, while Baltimore City and Baltimore, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Talbot counties want more Republican judges. Montgomery County is also looking for Spanish-speaking judges.

Board members approved a slew of local boards’ proposals for voting centers. Roughly 255 voting centers and nearly 70 early voting locations were approved during Friday’s meeting, with a majority of Maryland’s counties submitting their plans for November. Frederick County and Baltimore City are among the few jurisdictions that haven’t submitted a plan yet.

While many counties intend to use high schools and community centers as voting centers, some are using athletic arenas: Prince George’s county intends to use the University of Maryland’s Xfinity Center on Election Day.

Concerns over ballot applications

Board Member Malcolm L. Funn (D) said he recently received a mailed ballot application, despite already having applied online. Board members previously said voters who apply for a ballot online won’t receive an application in the mail.

Erin Perrone, the director of the state board’s election management and reform division, said some voters who apply online for a mail-in ballot will still receive an application in the mail. State election officials gave applications data to their printing vendor on Aug. 6 — and voters who applied after that date, or whose applications weren’t processed by that date, will receive an application in the mail.

Funn said he applied around July 20, but Perrone noted that his application wasn’t processed until Aug. 15.

Some who received applications despite applying online were outraged, including Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery), who slammed the unneeded mailings as “an extra step, and an extra burden, and extra money that’s spent.”

Kagan and her staff went through the state’s online ballot application process on July 29, but still received applications in the mail Thursday.

Perrone noted that voters might not need to resend the mailed application form, and can check their application status via the state’s online voter lookup system. Roughly 378,200 Marylanders have requested mail-in ballots so far, with nearly 4 million voters expected to receive mailed application forms in the coming days.

By Bennett Leckrone

Local Elections Officials Urge Fewer Voting Sites Due to Poll Worker Shortage

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Election officials from around Maryland urged the State Board of Elections to reduce the number of voting locations because they do not expect to have enough election judges to staff polls.

“This is your final opportunity to adjust course and save the election in Maryland,” David Garreis, the president of the Maryland Association of Election Officials (MAEO), told the board at its online meeting Wednesday.

So far, local officials estimate they are short about a third of the workers they would need to open all polling sites as Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) ordered last month.

Recruiting volunteers to work long hours steering thousands of voters through polling sites during a pandemic has been difficult. Many longtime poll workers initially agreed to work the election, but dropped out after consulting with families and friends, Garreis said.

Instead of opening every polling location, the association wants the State Board of Elections to allow jurisdictions to open several centralized voting centers.

MAEO’s plan calls for opening the same number of election-day voting centers as early voting sites, with the option of adding two additional centers in each jurisdiction, if needed.

Deputy State Elections Administrator Nikki Charlson said 79 or 80 early voting sites already are designated across Maryland.

The MAEO proposal allows up to 128 voting centers — far fewer than the more than 1,000 called for in Gov. Hogan’s plan. Vice Chairman Patrick J. Hogan (D) floated the idea of allowing local boards of elections to open even more centers.

Traditional polling centers, of the kind Gov. Hogan wants open for the November election, are neighborhood-based. But the voting centers MAEO recommends would pull voters from several precincts across a larger geographic area.

Garreis said local boards would seek large facilities for the voting centers, such as high schools, that would allow for more social distancing.

Under MAEO’s recommendations, voting centers would be open from Oct. 29 through Election Day, hosting both early and election-day voting.

The Nov. 3 election is about 90 days away, and Garreis said time is running out to change the election format.

“Failure to give us the tools we need to be successful is going to put the outcome of the entire election in doubt,” said Garreis, who is also Anne Arundel County’s deputy elections director.

State elections board member William G. Voelp (R) and Patrick J. Hogan agreed that the board may not have the authority to mandate the consolidated voting centers. The decision rests with the governor.

MAEO also asked the state elections board to set up a center to help local boards process mail-in ballot applications.

Board members will decide on the MAEO recommendations at a meeting at 2 p.m. Friday.

MAEO’s requests came days after Gov. Hogan slammed local officials’ requests to close some election-day polling centers.

Hogan issued his decision to hold a more traditional election after errors in the state’s largely vote-by-mail June 2 primary led to delayed results and long lines at polls.

In a letter to the State Board of Elections on Monday, Hogan wrote that Prince George’s County officials’ request to close 229 precincts and open only 15 could disenfranchise minority voters and keep many voters of color from making it to the polls.

But the governor didn’t seem to take issue with consolidating certain polling locations in that letter, and wrote that merging a few precincts is under local boards’ jurisdictions. The idea of opening such a limited number of polling centers as Prince George’s proposed, however, is one Hogan won’t entertain.

“Under existing state law, local boards do have the authority to make decisions regarding the consolidation of polling places in case of an emergency,” Hogan wrote. “However, merging two polling places into one is very different than closing 90% of all polling places in a county.”

In a statement Wednesday, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) defended her county’s request to limit in-person voting in the Nov. 3 election.

“Rather than mail ballots to homes as he did for the primary, the Governor wants us to believe it is in our best interest to put voters, election judges and volunteers at risk, or to engage in the unreliable and overcomplicated process of sending absentee ballot applications because he refuses to mail ballots to the homes of Marylanders,” Alsobrooks wrote.

“The fact that the Governor, who is well aware that Prince George’s County has experienced the greatest amount of COVID-19 illness and death in the state, mocked our concern regarding a safe and responsible voting process for our citizens, demonstrates his high disregard for the health and well-being of the people in my County.”

Vice-chairman Hogan and fellow board member Malcolm L. Funn, the two Democrats on the panel, still hoped to recommend a largely mail-in election to the governor.

Vice-chairman Hogan said he’d lost sleep worrying about the shortage of election workers, and urged Republican board members to recommend automatic mail-in voting.

“I’m pleading one last time for this board … to recommend mailing every registered voter a ballot, and having as many early voting sites, and as many election day sites as possible with the staffing that the [local boards of elections] can produce,” the vice-chairman said.

The five-member board previously split along party lines in recommending an elections format to the governor. Funn and Vice-chairman Hogan recommended automatic mail-in voting and the board’s Republican majority recommended applications for mail-in ballots, citing concerns over voter confidence and fraud.

Funn pushed back on those claims during the Wednesday afternoon meeting.

“There has been no factual indication that mail-in ballots has created fraud,” Funn said.

Republican Voelp said he wants to work to make Hogan’s plan work rather than change the board’s recommendation at this late stage.

Eleven Maryland counties say they won’t be able to open all of their polling locations for early voting and election day as they face a massive shortage of workers.

Allegany, Anne Arundel, Carroll, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s, Talbot and Washington counties all requested polling location changes during the virtual meeting.

Board members will consider the consolidations at their Friday meeting, after they mull the MAEO recommendations.

Calls for the governor to reverse course and conduct a mostly mail-in election on Nov. 3 have grown since he decided to hold a more traditional election.

The governor has repeatedly said state law requires all polling centers to open, but voting rights advocates, local election officials and Democratic lawmakers say his plan will disenfranchise voters.

Advocates have touted the successes of the June 2 largely-mail-in primary — including very high voter turnout and a vast majority of ballots being delivered correctly — as reasons to hold the upcoming general election by mail.

Also at the meeting Wednesday, Del. Michele Guyton (D-Baltimore County) floated the idea of opening curbside voting for the Nov. 3 election. Guyton said curbside voting, wherein voters remain in their car to cast their ballot, would be safer for voters and election workers.

“I’m not willing to stand in line with a lot of other people at polling places, or to volunteer as a poll worker,” Guyton said, adding that many might be comfortable with both if curbside voting was in place.

In keeping with the governor’s decision, the State Board of Elections approved a draft for the state’s mail-in ballot applications Wednesday.

Board members also set the deadline for requesting a mail-in ballot to Oct. 20.

MAEO had requested the deadline be moved from Oct. 27 to give election officials more time to process vote-by-mail requests and send out ballots.

By Bennett Leckrone

Maryland Needs 13,000+ Election Judges

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Local election officials are scrambling to fill more than 13,000 election judge jobs that remain vacant after Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) ordered a more traditional election for Nov. 3 despite health concerns in the COVID-19 pandemic.

About a third of election judge positions are unfilled across the state. Maryland Association of Election Officials President David Garreis said the number of vacancies before an election is unprecedented.

“In my 15 years of doing elections, I can’t remember us ever having a 35 percent vacancy rate,” said Garreis, who is also the deputy director of the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections.

Garreis added that older, more experienced election judges seem to be dropping out in greater numbers. He said many initially agreed to work the election, but dropped out after consulting with their families and friends.

For election day, 27,239 election judges are needed, and 9,654 — or 35% — of the jobs are vacant.

Early voting centers will need 12,831 election judges to run as normal, but 4,083  — or 31% — of the positions are vacant as of the state’s most recent update on July 30.

The risks of conducting an election in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic have led election judges in Maryland and across the country to call it quits. And owners of some private properties used as polling centers have declined to let their properties be used for the November 3 election.

One veteran Maryland poll worker called Hogan’s plan for an in-person election an “unnecessary suicide mission” and said she wouldn’t be working as an election judge in November.

Hogan wants every voting center and early voting location open for the November election, but local election boards have said that a lack of poll workers could mean they will have to consolidate polling centers.

Fewer election judges likely will mean fewer polling locations, David Garreis, president of the Maryland Association of Election Officials, warned members of the State Board of Elections.

“It’s becoming impossible to fill all of these vacancies,” Garreis told the State Board of Elections. “We’re not going to be able to make up for this election judge shortfall.”

Every registered voter will receive an application for a mail-in ballot under Hogan’s plan, instead of automatically receiving a mail-in ballot as they did in the state’s June 2 primary. Turnout was high for the primary, but many voters received late or incorrect ballots, and those who voted in person found long lines at the limited number of voting centers.

Health experts, voting rights advocates, Democratic lawmakers and local election officials have asked Hogan to reverse course and conduct the election largely by mail. They say his decision isn’t just a herculean lift for local boards of elections, but also limits choices for voters in the midst of a pandemic.

The governor has defended his plan for a more traditional election, arguing that he was following state law when he ordered voting centers open. In a WBAL interview last week, Hogan said he took an extra step by sending out ballot applications to every voter, and blasted criticism as “complete nonsense”.

“It’s not my plan for the election, it’s what state law requires,” Hogan said.

Common Cause Maryland Executive Director Joanne Antoine called Hogan’s defense “disingenuous” in a statement Friday and urged the governor to adopt a mostly mail-in election format.  She noted that mailing voters ballot applications is expected to add about $5.6 million to election costs.

“There is still time for Governor Hogan to change his mind and direct the SBE to use the same election procedures as were used on April 28 and June 2,” Antoine said. “It would save at least $5.6 million and a lot of voter confusion.”

Meanwhile, the Hogan administration is encouraging state workers to fill the slew of poll worker vacancies.

In a letter to state employees last week, Maryland Department of Budget and Management Secretary David R. Brinkley offered holiday pay and 16 hours of administrative leave for state employees who volunteer as election judges, compared with the eight hours he has offered in the past.

Registered voters in Maryland who are physically and mentally able to work at least a 15-hour day and can speak, read and write English can sign up to be election judges.

People as young as 16 years old can register to vote and can sign up to be election judges, with a parent or guardian’s permission.  But they cannot vote unless they will be 18 years old by the general election.

By Bennett Leckrone

Hogan Demands Answers, Action on Delayed Mailing to Voters

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Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) slammed the Maryland State Board of Elections in a letter Monday, demanding to know why voters haven’t been mailed applications to request mail-in ballots yet.

In his letter, Hogan gave the State Board of Elections 48 hours to explain why those ballot applications have not been mailed to voters, and reiterated his call for election officials to open every available polling center for the Nov. 3 general election.

“Under existing law, and to save voters the extra step of having to request an application for an absentee ballot, I directed you to promptly mail applications to every single Maryland registered voter,“ Hogan wrote. “It has now been 26 days, and you have failed to take action.”

Hogan’s letter came as state election officials are looking for a new vendor to do printing for the November election. State Election Administrator Linda H. Lamone has blamed printing vendor SeaChange for late and incorrect ballot deliveries in the June 2 primary.

The State Board of Elections issued a request for proposals from printers last month. Officials hope to have a contract in place by Aug. 17 so the new vendor can prepare for the unprecedented tasks of mailing millions of registered voters both applications for ballots and actual ballots during a pandemic.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore city) responded to Hogan’s letter with a detailed timeline that Lamone sent to him and Sen. Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George’s). In that letter, dated July 30, Lamone wrote that the State Board plans to approve a revised mail-in ballot application by Aug. 5.

Maryland voters should start receiving mail-in ballot applications, with pre-paid return envelopes, after they are mailed on Aug. 28, according to Lamone’s letter. Mail-in ballots will be sent starting Sept. 24, according to her timeline.

Election officials across the state have scrambled to find election workers and polling centers since Hogan announced his intent to hold a more traditional election in November. Advocates have repeatedly asked Hogan to reverse course and hold another largely mail-in election, as Maryland did for the June 2 primary. But Hogan said state law requires in-person polling centers to be open.

“Let me be clear — this is not ‘my plan,’ it is what Maryland law requires you to do,” Hogan wrote.

The governor also slammed local officials who want to limit the number of in-person locations for voting in the general election. Hogan wrote that he’d received a letter from Prince George’s County officials requesting to close 229 precincts and only open 15. Hogan said such a move would suppress voters of color.

“Local leaders have suggested massive closures of polling places, particularly in some of our minority communities,” Hogan wrote. “This would likely result in voter suppression and disenfranchisement on a significant scale, disparately impacting Marylanders of color.”

Democratic lawmakers, local election officials and voting rights advocates have, in turn, accused Hogan of voter suppression due to his decision to require voters to apply for a mail-in ballot instead of automatically sending them one.

By Bennett Leckrone

Local Officials May Need State Workers to Fill Election Judge Vacancies

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Maryland’s State Board of Elections might take Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) up on his offer to encourage state employees to fill election judge vacancies for local election boards across the state.

A shortage of election judges, fueled by safety concerns because of the continuing coronavirus pandemic, could foil Hogan’s plan to open every polling place for the Nov. 3 election.

David Garreis, president of the Maryland Association of Election Officials, warned that local election boards might have to consolidate polling places because they would not have enough election judges to operate them all.

“It’s becoming impossible to fill all of these vacancies,” Garreis told the State Board of Elections during a virtual meeting Thursday afternoon. “We’re not going to be able to make up for this election judge shortfall.”

In a July 8 letter, Hogan told members of Maryland’s elections board that the state would provide personal protective equipment and encourage state employees to fill in as election judges when needed. Now, as privately owned polling locations are being withdrawn for the Nov. 3 election and poll workers call it quits, officials are considering asking the governor for help.

“We need to let the governor know as soon as possible, so that his administration can get the word out and recruit state employees to be judges,” state elections board Vice Chairman Patrick J. Hogan said. “The inability to staff polling places, as we all know, will have dramatic impacts on the ability for such places to open at all.”

Garreis, who is also the deputy elections director for Anne Arundel County, said roughly 35% of poll worker positions for the upcoming election are vacant statewide. He has said it takes about 25,000 poll workers to run a general election in Maryland.

Poll worker positions need to be filled sooner rather than later, Garreis said. He said Anne Arundel County plans to begin training its election judges in mid-August, and that larger counties may begin training before then.

After the governor announced his intent, earlier this month, to hold a more traditional election in November,  voting rights advocates, Democratic lawmakers and local election boards have called for him to reverse course and conduct a mail-in election.

On Wednesday, activists and lawmakers gathered outside of Hogan’s Annapolis residence and accused the governor of voter suppression.

Hogan seemed firm in his decision to expand in-person voting and send every registered Marylander an application for a mail-in ballot.

At a Wednesday evening press conference, the governor slammed the criticism and accusations of voter suppression as a “typical partisan argument.” He also criticized the State Board of Elections for what he described as a lack of preparation for the upcoming election.

Garreis pushed back on the governor’s claims of partisanship during the elections board’s Thursday meeting.

“The issues that we’re having are not a partisan issue,” Garreis said. “It’s a logistical issue stemming from a public health crisis.”

Officials also approved prepaid return envelopes for mail-in voting applications for the November election. Deputy Elections Administrator Nikki Charlson said the postage isn’t in the election board’s budget, but officials have said they’ll submit a budget amendment to cover that and other costs for the general election.

Prepaid postage for voters to return applications and mail-in ballots is expected to cost the state roughly $1.8 million, according to a recent letter to state officials from Maryland Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone.

Elections board members also heard concerns from a Montgomery County resident about electronic ballots in the November elections. Lynn Garland said she has experience in elections security and noted that electronic ballots have to be printed by voters and transcribed by poll workers before they can be counted. That process is cumbersome, she said, and could delay results into December.

Republican Maryland elections board member Kelley A. Howells said she is worried about the prospect of already-limited poll workers painstakingly transcribing electronic ballots by hand.

 “It really frightens me,” Howells said.

Many other board members seemed to share Howells’ concern and the board instructed staff to look at ways to encourage voters to use mail-in ballots rather than electronic ones.

The term “absentee ballot” is no longer used in Maryland. Charlson said a new state law changed the term to “mail-in ballot” and asked board members to refrain from using the “absentee” term.

By Bennett Leckrone