'Deluge of ballot envelopes' as Marylanders embrace mail-in voting

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Changes about who can vote and how those people can cast ballots have continued in Maryland since the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965.

In the past two years, since the COVID-19 pandemic, more voters in the Free State have been making their choices via mail-in ballots. Almost 500,000 mail-in ballots were sent to voters who requested them this year.

The trend toward mail-in balloting showed up in counties across the state during the July primary.

In Western Maryland's Washington County, for example, 5,912 mail-in ballots were filed, according to Barry Jackson, the county's deputy election director.

That's more than a tenfold increase from the 536 mail-in ballots filed for the last midterm primary election in 2018.

The mail-in trend is affecting total turnout, too, Jackson said.

The number of ballots cast jumped from 15,628 in 2018 to 21,920 this year, he said, and turnout rose from 21% to 29%.

Mail-in ballots make up most of that surge, he said.

Wicomico County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, saw a similar result.

Dionne Church, the county's elections director, said the number of mail-in ballots filed jumped from 359 in 2018 to 4,123 this year. Turnout rose from 17% to 23%.

The increase is likely due to mail-in ballots and a nonpartisan board of education race that attracted some voters who are not affiliated with a political party, she said.

Maryland hit with 'deluge of ballot envelopes' due to processing restriction

But the law about processing those ballots hasn't kept pace, election officials said. The result is a days-long delay in calculating the results.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, most states, including Virginia, allow officials to begin processing absentee/mail-in ballots before Election Day. The others, such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, let officials begin processing the ballots on Election Day, but before the polls close. And two leave the matter to the discretion of election officials.

But Maryland does not permit the processing of absentee/mail ballots until 10 a.m. on the Thursday after an election day, based on state regulation.

Maryland's primary election day was July 19. Final canvassing of ballots in some areas didn't wind up until more than a week later.

The General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, passed a bill this year that would have changed that rule and some other processes.

Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, vetoed the measure.

The governor acknowledged that early canvassing would allow election workers to get a head start "on the deluge of ballot envelopes." But Hogan said the bill lacked provisions for election security, such as ballot collection and signature verifications.

'Always one ballot for one voter': Elections director defends current system

Jackson, the Washington County deputy elections director, said the current system is designed to stop cheating, such as preventing one person from filing two mail-in ballots.

Each mail-in ballot must be accompanied by a specific envelope, Jackson said. Each envelope has identifying marks that tie it to a specific voter.

That system ensures "there's always one ballot for one voter" in the election database, he said. The computer system won't accept duplicates.

Once the canvassing starts, election workers remove the ballots from the envelopes and gather the ballots to tally the votes.

From that point, the ballot is mixed with others and is no longer associated with the envelope, Jackson said. That step preserves the voter's anonymity, so no one can tell how the person voted.

Follow Mike Lewis on Twitter: @MiLewis

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Mail-in balloting soars in Maryland, causing delay in tallying votes