Mail-In Voting In Maryland: Deadlines, How To Get A Ballot

MARYLAND — More than 500,000 mail-in ballots went uncounted during the 2020 primary season nationwide, many of them because they were deemed incomplete or because they arrived too late.

In Maryland, state election officials said nearly 35,000 ballots were rejected during the primary.

Of those, authorities said more than 30,000 ballots were received late and more than 3,000 did not have signatures.

The issue could grow: A record number of voters may stay away from traditional polling places for the Nov. 3 general election because of the coronavirus pandemic and instead cast their ballots by mail.

To help ensure your vote is among those tallied in Maryland, follow this checklist:

• Request a mail-in ballot. Mail-in ballot requests are due by Oct. 20. There are three ways to get one:

  • Request a mail-in ballot online. Use this option if you have a Maryland driver's license or MVA-issued ID. Online requests for a mail-in ballot must be submitted by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

  • Go to the local board of elections to get the form by Oct. 20.

  • Fill out an application for a ballot. After signing it, print the application and return it to the local board of elections by mail, fax, or email (scanned as an attachment). There is also a Spanish version of the solicitud de papeleta de votante. Emailed or faxed requests are due by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Mailed requests are due by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

• Cast the ballot. You must mail or hand-deliver your voted ballot. You cannot submit your voted ballot online, by email or by fax.

  • Mail it in. The envelope must be postmarked on or before Nov. 3, which is Election Day. "We are urging all Marylanders to return their ballots as soon as possible due to backlogs at the U.S. Postal Service," the Maryland Board of Elections advises. "Your ballot comes with a postage-paid return envelope, so submitting your ballot by mail is free. Your ballot must be postmarked on or before Nov. 3. Putting your ballot in a mailbox on Nov. 3 does not mean it is postmarked."

  • Hand-deliver it to the local board of elections by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

  • Drop your ballot at a ballot drop off box by 8 p.m. on Election Day. The list of ballot drop off boxes for the general election will be listed on the state board of elections site as soon as it is available.

Note: Due to a change in law, the Maryland Board of Elections must use the terms "mail-in ballot" and "mail-in voting" rather than absentee ballot or absentee voting.

With guidelines changing in many states, more than 80 percent of all American voters will be eligible to receive a ballot in the mail for the 2020 election, by far the most in U.S. history.

That’s a result of 20 states loosening vote-by-mail laws this year due to the pandemic. As of Aug. 25, data from The Washington Post indicates 100 million people will be eligible to vote by mail either with no “excuse” or citing fears of the coronavirus as a reason. Among them, 51 million people will be automatically sent a ballot in the mail and 44 million people sent an application for a mail-in ballot.

Only six states still require a valid excuse other than coronavirus fears to vote by mail. Five states had already conducted elections solely by mail even before the pandemic.

Will your vote count?

In the primary election, a study by the Post showed 534,731 ballots were nixed in 23 states, and NPR found even more — 558,032 in 30 states — in a similar study. In New York City alone, more than 84,000 mail-in ballots were tossed and lawsuits were filed over the legitimacy of the outcomes of some close races.

Millions of people will cast their ballots by mail for the first time in the 2020 general election. Pew Research numbers show the number of people who vote by mail had already been on a sharp increase for years. In 2016, more than 20 percent of voters nationwide voted by mail, a total of about 27 million.

Of the 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the 2016 and 2018 general elections, officials found 372 possible cases of double voting or voting on behalf of deceased people, according to Electronic Registration Information Center data analyzed by the Post. That equates to a 0.0025 percent fraud rate. The Brennan Center for Justice has described vote-by-mail fraud as “infinitesimally small.”

Why are people concerned about a legitimate election with so few documented cases of actual fraud?

Partly, it’s problems with the U.S. Postal Service. But equally troublesome are problems that exposed themselves during the primaries. The Post data shows more ballots were rejected in 23 states than the number of absentee ballot rejections reported in the 2016 general election nationwide, in large part because of mistakes in filling out the ballots.

That means a lot more opportunities for inexperienced mail-in voters to make mistakes — which Daniel A. Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida, says could pose a significant problem in the rejection rate come November.

“Experience matters,” Smith told the Post. “If you lack experience voting by mail, the odds of you casting a ballot that doesn’t count will go up.”

To make sure your ballot is counted:

• Register to vote: You can do that online until 9 p.m. on Oct. 13 in Maryland or in person during early voting or on Election Day at a polling place.

• Follow directions: "If it says fill in the oval, fill in the oval," Amber McReynolds of the National Vote at Home Institute told NPR. Don't forget the signature.

• Send it back: Make sure to mail in your ballot well ahead of the deadline.

Charles Stewart III, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said if the election between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden is close, the mail-in ballots will create “a mess.”

“The two campaigns will be arguing over nonconforming ballots, which is going to run up against voters’ beliefs in fair play,” Stewart told the Post.

There’s also growing concern over the governmental entity tasked with handling the influx of mail-in ballots.

The Postal Service has come under fire for increasingly slow service, mail backlogs and planned changes that some have feared will have an effect on their ability to handle the expected massive increase of mail-in ballots this year.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told senators on Capitol Hill in recent testimony he was unaware of certain changes at the Postal Service until they caused a public uproar. But he also said there are no plans to restore mailboxes or high-speed sorting machines that have been removed. His testimony raised fresh questions about how the Postal Service will ensure timely delivery of ballots for the November election.

In Maryland, vote-by-mail drop boxes will be installed so voters can avoid the lines at the polls and not have to worry about Postal Service issues. At least 200 drop boxes will be open until 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.

— By Elizabeth Janney and Tim Moran

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.

This article originally appeared on the Bel Air Patch