The following article was submitted by Sixth District Delegate Bob Long as he comments on the error made by the Maryland Board of Elections
Time and time again, I have proposed legislation in Annapolis calling for more verification and security within our election system in Maryland. The focus of these bills is making sure that Marylanders can trust and remain confident that our elections are free and fair.
While these bills were shot down, we now see the importance of why this type of legislation is needed. Last
month, the Maryland State Board of Elections announced an error that caused some voters to receive the wrong party’s primary ballots. The state could not identify exactly which ballots were affected, leading officials to have to reissue over 500,000 ballots due to uncertainty in the system.
When errors like this occur, the trust and confidence voters have in the system can be hurt. The trust a voter has in elections is key to making sure we are part of a healthy functioning democracy and ensuring that we have as many safeguards in place as possible.
While this is not to say there was any intent of voter fraud, it does go to show that even well intended election systems can experience significant administrative failures as we have just seen here in Maryland.
The message is clear, whether a voter is Republican, Democrat, or Independent, confidence in election outcomes is essential. When hundreds of thousands of ballots must be reissued, it is natural for voters to be confused and ask the question of if there are enough safeguards in place. Increased signature verification is just one of those safeguards we can add to ensure our voters can remain confident in our elections.
Human error happens sometimes, and when we draft our regulations around our election procedures, they should be designed with the expectation that mistakes will occasionally occur.
No matter what part of the process an error might occur, verification procedures provide additional protection to the process as a whole. Many other states use some form of signature verification in their voting practices. It’s time for Maryland to follow suit and adopt a system where we can verify voters while also maintaining opportunities for voters to cast their ballots, and in this last session I sponsored House Bills 581 and 830.
Now more than ever we see that increased security is relevant and needed in our election system, and I will continue my mission to ensure we hold fair and secure elections here in Maryland. While the preference is to eliminate absentee ballots entirely, except in cases of service members and those who are not able to make it to the polls.
If that is unable to be achieved, then at the very least we need to have voter verification to make it as secure as possible.