MARYLAND (WBFF) — The Maryland Freedom Caucus says the mail-in ballot error is a crisis and is destroying election integrity.
“This has the potential to really be a disaster,” said Maryland Freedom Caucus member Del. (R) Kathy Szeliga. “We need to know how the Board of Elections will know if people return two ballots by accident.”
ALSO READ | Calls for transparency after Maryland State Board of Elections mail-in ballot error
“It has all kinds of potential ramifications,” said Maryland Freedom Caucus member Del. (R) Ryan Nawrocki. “The Board of Elections may effectively suppress people’s votes, some may return those incorrect ballots, and they may not be counted.”
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.
The Board says more than 500,000 voters have requested mail-in ballots, and to correct the error, it will resend all ballots, regardless of whether the one you received is correct.
The Maryland Freedom Caucus is calling on the Secretary of the Election Board, Jared DeMarinis, 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.”
Their statement goes on to say, “We caution against reissuing another 400,000 ballots, and we demand to know how the state intends to differentiate between the first and second printing of these ballots. The citizens have a right to know the exact process by which ballots will be scrutinized.”
“I would encourage the State Board of Elections to finally cooperate with the Department of Justice so we can get this sorted out, so we can fully understand who’s on our rolls, who got one of these erroneous ballots, and what we can do to correct it,” said Del. Nawrocki. “But we can’t correct the problem if we don’t have a good sense of who’s in the rolLs and who got one of those ballots.”
ALSO READ | Maryland Freedom Caucus pushes for new laws to secure voter registration
“I’m very disappointed that Governor Wes Moore, who’s the leader of our state, has yet to weigh in on what’s going on,” said Del Szeliga. “His name is on the ballot. You would think he would want to weigh in and know, to assure the public. He needs to assure the public that this is going to be handled well and that there won’t be fraud.”
FOX45 reached out twice to the Governor on Sunday. The first was to his state press team, asking for his statement on the issue, and the second was to his campaign team.
This article will be updated with a response once received.
Questions or concerns can be directed to the Maryland State Board of Elections by emailing info.sbe@maryland.gov or calling 410-269-2840.
Local Story
