MARYLAND (WBFF) — Votes are trickling in at drop boxes across Maryland as elections officials race to correct a ballot-printing error that led some voters to receive an incorrect ballot last month and a replacement ballot this month.
The state sent replacement ballots to a half million Maryland voters after sending incorrect ballots to an unknown number of Maryland voters.
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State elections officials are encouraging voters to cast their votes using only the replacement ballots. However, on Tuesday, the state elections board approved a plan which would count the original ballots if they are the only ballot cast and the voter’s party affiliation matches the ballot.
“We still want every voter to vote with the replacement ballot but, in the end, we still want every voter heard and enfranchise everyone,” Jared DeMarinis, Maryland’s State Administrator of Elections, said.
However, Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey believes voters deserve more safeguards, warning that uncertainty can undermine confidence.
“When you get into ‘what if this happens or what if that happens’, then you’re losing trust in the system because it makes it sound like those who are operating the system don’t really understand the full problem,” Hershey said.
In Washington, the Justice Department is now investigating.
“I’m not going to reach any conclusions about it, but they’re claiming it was a vendor error but ballots got sent out with the wrong party affiliation,” Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said.
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The Justice Department is already probing allegations of voter fraud in Maryland.
“Maryland is already in litigation with us because they refuse to hand over voter rolls. This incident further erodes confidence by voters that these people are either incompetent or deliberately not enabling the votes of certain Americans,” Dhillon said.
The issue also drew sharp reaction on talk radio.
“I mean you can’t make this stuff up. Yet nobody bats an eye here in Maryland,” WCBM host Kim Klacik said on Tuesday. “Here you’ve got 500,000 mail in ballots just floating around. Voting rolls aren’t clear, we know that already. We don’t know if people are going to vote twice. You know what, you could vote three times.”
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