County's early voting sites this year will be in Hagerstown, Boonsboro and … Smithsburg
There won't be an early voting center in Hancock this year, but there will be one in Smithsburg.
If you missed the Hancock early voting center saga, or if you've lost track, here's a recap:
Last year, the Washington County Board of Elections recommended the board headquarters on Virginia Avenue and the Hancock Town Hall as its two required early voting center sites for this year's election. A third alternative, authorized by the county commissioners, was the American Legion in Boonsboro.
Last fall, the Maryland State Board of Elections approved the Virginia Avenue and Boonsboro sites but rejected the Hancock site, contending too few (about 3,100) voters would have access to it.
Washington County Commissioner Derek Harvey led an effort to overturn the decision in court, which was rejected by an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge (the state Board of Elections office is in Annapolis). Harvey and company appealed the case to the Supreme Court of Maryland, which referred the case to mediation.
Last week, the parties agreed to place the second required early voting center at … the Smithsburg branch of the Washington County Free Library.
Hancock out? Location of early voting site in Washington County still being determined
So … how did we get from Hancock to Smithsburg?
Early in the discussions with the state Elections Board, a number of city officials sought to have the second center at the library's Fletcher Branch in downtown Hagerstown, which had been an early voting center in the 2022 midterm election.
But county officials complained that it was too close to the Washington County Election Center on Virginia Avenue, and Elections Director Barry Jackson reported that only a fraction of the county's early voters had used the library site, while most had come to Virginia Avenue.
"They're only about a mile and a half away from each other," he said. "They almost overlap completely."
Hence the Hancock proposal.
But in the mediation process, the parties sought a compromise location between Hancock and Hagerstown, and couldn't find one that was suitable.
"After the mediation, the staff … recommended the Smithsburg library as our second early voting site and our local board approved it by a 3-to-2 vote," Jackson said. "And then it was submitted to the state board, and two days later on Thursday the state board unanimously approved it as our second early voting site. And so that's kind of where we are now."
"I agreed with the local board's original decision to provide a voting site in Hancock," said Harvey, the lead plaintiff in the suit. "Unfortunately the state did not support that. And the local board was limited to sites that were also not in the west. So it was, choosing one that added the most access — and the local board discovered that it was Smithsburg.
"Maugansville and Fairplay overlapped extensively with the Virginia Avenue site, and so Smithsburg was the one choice on the list that made the most sense," said Harvey, a Smithsburg area resident.
Even though it's a little close to Boonsboro, "it still added more people," Harvey said, but he added, "I'm really not pleased with it because the goal should have been to get people that have to drive the farthest, that don't have access, don't have public transportation available to them and is a traditionally poor part of the county, access to an early voting site. And we did not achieve that."
"I'm disappointed in the final outcome, honestly," said Washington County Commissioner Wayne Keefer, a resident of Hancock. "I kind of question whether it was ever about providing access to early voting for Hancock residents … was the process ever about bringing better access to an early voting site to Hancock residents."
Keefer said he believes the goal wasn't about Hancock, but keeping a second early voting site out of Hagerstown.
The county commissioners had joined the suit after it was filed. But when three of them voted Tuesday to pay $15,000 in legal fees to attorney Adam Greivell, a member of the Washington County Republican Central Committee who represented Harvey and the other plaintiffs in the suit, Keefer balked.
"I do appreciate Adam's work," he said, "but is it still true that none of the other plaintiffs have contributed any funding? Do we know? My concern is when this was brought to us, the group was seeking additional plaintiffs at no cost … I think if we weren't the original plaintiffs and the original plaintiffs aren't contributing to the legal costs, I don't know why county government has to."
Harvey abstained from the vote. "The point that our (county) attorney made was that this was, most of the work that was done by the county was actually previously done by the attorney for the plaintiffs," he said, "so it took a heavy load off of our attorneys in that process."
"I just think if the lead plaintiff isn't contributing, I don't think county government should," Keefer replied.
State Supreme Court refers Hancock early voting center appeal to mediation
Back to Smithsburg — are there advantages to the site?
"Some of the benefits of the Smithsburg library is that it is kind of close in toward Hagerstown and Boonsboro, so that if either of those early voting sites get overwhelmed, it's a fairly short drive to Smithsburg to go to that site," Jackson said.
"Also, it's on a county commuter bus line, right on Water Street. And it meets all the criteria and requirements of an early voting site. So we're excited to be there. The library system has been very cooperative and just willing to help in any way they can."
Jackson said the three early voting sites will be used for both the Maryland primaries in May and the General Election this fall.
Early voting for the primary elections begins May 2 and ends May 9; the election date is May 14. Early voting for the General Election runs from Oct. 24 through Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 5.
Appeal of Hancock early voting center rejection scheduled to be heard in February
A judge ruled against a Hancock early voting site. County commissioner plans to appeal
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Elections officials approve early voting center in Smithsburg
