'Doing two elections at the same time': Maryland lawmakers look ahead to close mail-in gap

Mail-in ballots continue to be counted, and the winner of key elections across Maryland are yet to be known.

And while candidates for the most part are standing by patiently, some lawmakers are concerned that such a gap between Election Day and results could cause problems in the future.

After the 2020 election conducted during the pandemic, many voters across the state and country got comfortable with casting their ballot by mail. But election laws haven’t quite caught up to the new environment, putting a strain on local election officials.

“We’re basically doing two elections at the same time,” said Barry Jackson, the deputy election director in Washington County, in an interview minutes before the polls closed on Tuesday. “We’re doing an in-person election (and) we’re doing a mail-in election.”

In the 2018 primary election, the county saw less than 1,000 absentee or mail-in ballots. Now, after a 2020 election where all voters in the state were sent a mail-in ballot, the county had over eight times as many requests as they did in the last gubernatorial primary. Montgomery County had about 15,000 requests in 2018. Four years later, that number reached over 115,000.

Jackson said on Election Day that he’s seen no issues at all with mail-in ballots, but due to existing state law the counting of those votes did not begin until Thursday. The state laws for conducting elections still reflect what elections were like before 2020, when mail-in ballots weren’t as prevalent.

“The General Assembly is trying to figure out what do they want to do,” Jackson said, referring to Annapolis lawmakers.

Weren't there bills in the last General Assembly to address mail-in ballot problems?

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed bills in May that would have allowed election officials to begin processing mail-in ballots before the polls closed on Election Day. His veto was not aimed, in particular, at that provision, which he called a “positive” change, but rather at the lack of a signature verification section in the bills.

Comptroller Peter Franchot, a Democrat, seeking to replace Hogan as governor, said during his first stop on Election Day that the delay in counting the ballots jeopardizes citizens' trust in the process.

“People lose their trust and confidence in government, regardless of the explanation,” said Franchot, outside of Piney Branch Elementary School in the D.C. suburb of Takoma Park, Md. He said the gap can be taken advantage of to sow doubts in the election and feed conspiratorial mistrust of government. The U.S. House Jan. 6 Committee highlighted such a conspiracy from the 2020 election during its hearing Thursday night.

State Del. Reid Novotny, R-Howard/Carroll, also expressed concern that a delay in results could lead to problems during an interview Thursday afternoon at the State House in Annapolis.

“It’s bad for the citizens not to know the election as soon as possible,” said Novotny, sitting at a table in the building’s canteen. The time gap between Election Day and results “provides more (for) conspiracy theorists to think that something’s wrong.”

The Associated Press called the Republican gubernatorial primary in favor of Del. Dan Cox, R-Frederick, on Tuesday night, but the Democratic gubernatorial primary results have yet to be announced as of Friday morning.

Both the legislature and the state board of elections have recourse to allow for the early counting of mail-in ballots. Whether the action to allow for the early processing of mail-in ballots will be taken in time for November’s general election is still an open question.

Will a bill addressing mail-in ballot problems be filed in Maryland?

Novotny, a one-term state delegate, is confident that a standalone bill for the early processing of ballots will be proposed, though the state legislature is not scheduled to meet before January.

“Someone will put in that bill,” he said, “to make sure that this gap of two days is no longer there.”

Novotny, who’s running for state Senate, called mail-in ballots “a great way to ensure that we have access to voting,” but expressed disappointment in personnel resources being spread too thin across early voting, day-of voting, and processing the mail-in ballots.

“If we don’t have the volunteers willing to do (the work), we provide a disservice to our constituents by having a bad product,” he said. “We have to be thinking about how to do this better.”

At the federal level, a bipartisan bill introduced this week by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Ben Cardin, D-Md., among others, looks to promote election-by-mail best practices, create an election mail adviser for each state, and protect election officials by increasing criminal penalties for those who threaten or intimidate those involved in the process. The Enhanced Election Security and Protection Act has at least 10 co-sponsors.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: MD lawmakers aim to fix mail-in ballot issues after delayed results