Calls for transparency after Maryland State Board of Elections mail-in ballot error

MARYLAND (WBFF) — As the June Maryland Primary Election quickly approaches, the Maryland State Board of Elections says there’s been an error in some mail-in ballots sent to voters.

Election Leaders say they are committed to running a secure and accurate operation.

Hundreds of thousands of Maryland voters will be receiving new mail-in ballots, according to the Board.

On Friday, the Board announced that some mail-in voters received the wrong party ballot for the gubernatorial primary election, pointing the finger at the mail-in ballot vendor.

Taylor Print and Visual Impressions, Inc., has released a statement saying “understand the seriousness of this matter and the importance of accuracy and trust in all election-related communications. Upon identifying the issue, we immediately began working closely with our customer and election officials to investigate the cause, implement corrective actions, and support the timely delivery of accurate materials to affected voters. We have implemented additional quality control and verification measures to help prevent this type of issue from occurring in the future.”

To correct the error, the Board says it will be re-sending all ballots, regardless of whether the one you received is correct.

Some politicians are now taking to social media, like gubernatorial Republican candidate Dan Cox, posting to x and calling this issue a recipe for disaster and demanding full transparency.

Those same words echoed from his opponent.

“This is a nightmare. This is the absolute worst-case scenario,” said Maryland Republican Gubernatorial candidate John Myrick. ” you’re going to put a million mail in ballots in play that has the potential for fraud, abuse, and to completely skew the election results. This is going to do nothing but delay the outcome of the primary election.”

The Board says more than 500,000 voters have requested mail-in ballots.

Dr. Richard Vatz, a retired rhetoric professor, says this could be a sign to limit mail-in voting.

“People who are in the military, people who don’t have access, people are disabled, I think they have to have the ability to vote, even if it’s an absentee vote,” said Dr. Vatz. “But simply Fred, who thinks, well, I’ll stay at home, I like this guy, I don’t like this issue, yeah, I’m just a citizen. I don’t think it’s critical to have his input to voting.”

According to the Board, this does not impact anyone who received a ballot via web delivery to print at home, and they have not indicated if this will delay the election.

President Trump also posted to Truth Social today regarding Maryland’s BOE announcement, writing in part, “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT MUST BE PASSED, NOW. Use the Housing and FISA Bills to get it done! Maryland just had 500,000 Fake Mail-In Ballots revealed. We cannot, as a Country, put up with this any longer!!!“

It should be noted that there is no proof of fraud.

The Maryland Freedom Caucus also released a statement today regarding the ballot issue writing in part “The Maryland Freedom Caucus is calling on Secretary of the Elec on Board, to immediately release Maryland’s voter rolls to the federal government so a proper audit can be conducted to determine the sources of the mistake….”we demand to know how the state intends to differentiate between the first and second printing of these ballots.”

Questions or concerns can be directed to the Maryland State Board of Elections by emailing info.sbe@maryland.gov or calling 410-269-2840.