BALTIMORE, Md. — It all begins with 20 brave souls, men and women who face the daunting task of canvassing as many as 10,000 ballots per day in a nearly century-old warehouse in Southwest Baltimore where much of the work must be done by hand.
“Of course, we’re checking to make sure that we mailed out a ballot to that voter and that it came back and that it is signed,” said Elections Warehouse Supervisor Sam McAfee.
Last month, a judge ruled Maryland election officials could begin counting mail-in ballots before Election Day to deliver timely results.
“We’ll be running those today, counting as many as they get scanned in and get through to us,” added McAfee.
City Election Director Armstead Jones had lobbied for the early canvas to get a jump on achieving a count once the polls close on Election Day.
It’s a job made that much more difficult with mail-in ballots allowed as long as they’re postmarked by November 8.
“Our aim is to get it done before Thanksgiving,” said Jones.
The elections board also will return to using police officers to deliver thumb drives with results from the precincts after some turned up missing in the primary.
“The pick up of the thumb drives this time was done so that we can speed up the process of getting them back early,” said Jones. “So, we can have 100 percent accountability hopefully of all of them on election night.”
