MARYLAND (WBFF) — With early voting now closed, members of Maryland’s Freedom Caucus and the watchdog group Secure the Vote are raising concerns about election integrity after ballot problems that state officials have blamed on a printing error.
At an event in Middle River, lawmakers said they have heard from residents who report receiving election materials meant for other people. Sen. Kathy Szeliga said, “Every day we are contacted by constituents who tell us they received a sample ballot and they don’t live in that house.”
“One house got like six different ballots and six different names,” said Del. Bob Long.
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Del. Ryan Nawrocki said some voters have received multiple ballots. “I know of constituents who have three live ballots in their hands right now with very little guidance from the Board of Elections,” he said.
State elections officials last month blamed a printer error for sending the wrong mail-in ballots to the wrong voters. The state then mailed a half million replacement ballots to those voting by mail.
Del. Matt Morgan criticized the state’s handling of the issue. “We’re not really behaving like a healthy republic it is more like a banana republic,” said Morgan. “It looks like amateur hour. And when we are asked about election integrity, the Board of Elections constantly stonewalls us.”
Kate Sullivan of Secure the Vote said the group’s concerns focus on the response to the ballot problems. “Our issue is with the way they’ve been handling this problem,” said Sullivan.
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Secure the Vote is calling on the Maryland Board of Elections to take specific steps “to restore confidence in the election,” including a requirement for notifying voters about rejected ballots. “Within 10 days of the primary election certification, every single voter must be notified if their ballot is rejected. That is a non-negotiable,” said Sullivan.
So far, Gov. Wes Moore has not commented on the election breakdown; however, the state is allowing the same printing company, blamed for this mishap, to handle printing for the general election in November.
“It’s time to find a new vendor. It’s a failure of leadership to move forward with the general election after we’ve already mailed out 500,000 bad ballots. We need a new vendor,” said Nawrocki.
You can watch the full press conference hosted by Maryland’s Freedom Caucus and Secure the Vote MD in the video above.
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