Hundreds of thousands of Marylanders initially received incorrect ballots in the mail ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, due to a vendor error, at a time when the integrity of elections is being called into question more than ever.
As a result, in a close race, it might take longer to declare a winner, but it shouldn鈥檛 impact the results.
Because of the mix-up, the state reissued ballots to everyone who received a mail-in ballot. But not every voter who got a second ballot actually needed one.
“You do have some voters who got the correct ballot to begin with, returned it, and then they got a second ballot,” said Alysoun McLaughlin, director of the Election Resilience Lab at the University of Maryland.
For those voters, McLaughlin said, the state is holding onto that first ballot until the last day 鈥� waiting to see if the voter also returns the second one. If they don’t, the first ballot counts. But those ballots won’t be counted until 10 days after Election Day, which means close races could take longer to call.
鈥淥n the one hand, they have really solid procedures for handling this,鈥� McLaughlin said. 鈥淭here’s all kinds of reasons why a voter might be sent more than one ballot, so the processes for keeping track of which ballot is the live one, which ballot is not the live one, which one is supposed to count 鈥� that’s an everyday, every election kind of a thing. But the scale of it is different. So, for election officials, it’s more work, it’s more anxiety on the part of the voters.”
She added that if a contest is so close that it comes down to questions about how many ballots were returned, the state will be able to provide that data.
鈥淲e will actually be able to track how many voters got the first ballot, how many voters got the second ballot, how many voters returned which type of ballot. That data is all going to be available. The bad news is that it’s not going to be available right away, so it’s going to take time for people to find out what the history was of the voters in that district,” McLaughlin said.
She said she’s satisfied with how Maryland has handled the situation, pointing to existing procedures designed for exactly these kinds of complications.
“The important thing is that those things get caught,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here’s a paper trail. Those things get caught in the audit before the election is certified.”
She also pushed back on any suggestion the error could taint results, saying Maryland’s election process includes Republicans and Democrats working side by side, along with records that can be reviewed and analyzed.
“Trust but verify,” McLaughlin said, adding voters and political parties can attend canvassing processes after Election Day to check the work themselves.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2026 小萝莉影视. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
