BALTIMORE — Trusting the election system mostly involves placing trust in processes that happen behind-the-scenes, processes we can't usually see.
But when you see ballot boxes lit on fire, such as what happened in Oregon and Washington, it's a pretty obvious example of election interference. As concerns over voter fraud and election interference ramp up across the country, blatant examples like that enhance anxieties.
The Maryland State Board of Elections administrator says that was a scenario his employees had trained for, and after seeing it happen in other cities, the board asked law enforcement to add more protections, without going into further detail about what those protections are.
All ballot boxes in the state are under 24/7 video surveillance, including the one outside the Baltimore City Board of Elections office, where we stopped by Thursday to interview director Armstead Jones. He's expecting a smooth and peaceful Election Day.
"I feel real comfortable with where we are. We have in place what we call a voter integrity team that has leaders from all departments of the city, police department as well."
Jones has served in this role since 2006. We asked him if he’s witnessed instances of voter fraud over the years.
"Simple things that may try to happen - if a person tries to vote twice. But of course, then the e-poll book will show that the individual has voted. In that case, if they continue to insist, we give them what we call a provisional ballot and of course, before that ballot is counted, it goes through a verification with the staff."
We also asked how the board prevents people who aren’t Maryland residents, or even U.S. citizens, from casting a ballot.
"If it's questionable, the ballot or the individual has to be questioned, and then there's a process to follow to look into that situation. But as long as they're on the E-Poll book, it's not our position to question it,” Jones said. “Whether they have dodged a system or whatever, that can’t be basically, you can’t find that out right away. They’re either registered or they’re not.”
The Maryland State Board of Elections is currently being sued by a group of Maryland voters who formed an organization with a South Carolina lawyer called Maryland Election Integrity LLC. The group conducted its own analysis of three years worth of the state's election data and found tens of thousands of errors on the voter rolls, such as voters who were registered twice or were under the age of 18.
The State Board of Elections said the allegations were "without merit and based on flawed methodology and incorrect calculations."
Back in March, we talked to the attorney representing the group behind the lawsuit.
"We're not calling anyone a bad actor,” attorney Ed Hartman told WMAR-2 News. “What we're saying is the data shows the system has gone beyond what is legally permitted. All we want to do is bring it back into compliance so that people can believe in the system. Everyone should want that. I’m not sure why - you really gotta go far afield in your argument to say that it’s a bad idea to make sure the election system is in compliance with federal and state law. We want that, and anyone who’s running for office certainly wants that.”
The case was initially dismissed in May for “lack of standing,” with U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher writing, “Plaintiffs allege no concrete or particularized injury to members of Maryland Election Integrity but simply generalized grievances applicable to the community as a whole. Courts routinely find such grievances insufficient to demonstrate standing to sue.”
However, the case was reopened on appeal, and Hartman says there’s a hearing scheduled for December in Virginia.
In response to the lawsuit, Joanne Antoine, executive director for the advocacy group Common Cause Maryland said: “One of these groups was incorporated in Missouri. The other was founded by a lawyer in South Carolina. That should tell you all you need to know about their concerns for elections in Maryland. Maryland has some of the most secure elections in the country. Common Cause Maryland and our partners have worked hard over the last few decades to improve our post-election processes, learn from infrequent voting machine errors, and establish trust between election administrators and the communities they serve. This lawsuit is an attempt to sow doubt in the work we’ve done. We stand with the Board of Elections and election officials across the state, and we hope that this lawsuit is swiftly rejected by the court.”
Hartman sent WMAR-2 News a new statement on Thursday when asked if there were further concerns ahead of Election Day:
"My clients continue to pursue transparency and accountability in and for the election process. In addition to the tens of thousands of errors raised in the lawsuit currently pending in the 4th circuit court of appeals in Richmond, additional troubling issues have arisen. These include parity among election judges, as qualified GOP volunteers are turned away, causing an imbalance between the judges and the parties they represent. Further, my clients are tracking mail-in ballots for irregularities, such as dead persons voting, and persons voting more than once. In response, the Md. State Board of Elections has passed a resolution forbidding its members from talking with my clients, even when they point out issues separate from the lawsuit. The boards of election appear to be more interested in shutting off citizen input than complying with state and federal law. The amount of time, money, and energy spent by the boards of election in avoiding accountability would be better spent on creating a clean and accountable election process."
Last year, the Office of Legislative Audits (OLA) also found problems with how it identifies dead and duplicate voters. The audit also said the state didn't always ensure local election boards corrected errors in their voter rolls and suggested more oversight. Baltimore City Director Jones says that oversight has increased in the past year.
"I know they're working on the process and have been working on it. And I've seen improvement in the list."
The State Board of Elections disagreed with most of the audit's findings and pointed out that it only identified minimal inaccuracies.
“The audit revealed that local boards of elections, using information from its partner agencies and the State Board, successfully removed 99.38% of all voters who became deceased from the voter registration list. Additionally, in a voter registration database of 4,148,651 active voters, only 0.00645% of those records were duplicates (approximately 268 records),” officials wrote in an April statement.
But, the agency did agree to work to improve its procedures. Aside from creating more oversight for local elections boards, the agency noted in its response to the OLA that in February 2023, an independent supervisory review of the programming and distribution of the ballot database was established, and will be used in all future elections.
You can read the full audit here. Just scroll down to 10/31/2023 to find the "State Board of Elections" report.
Early voting in Maryland ends Thursday at 8 p.m. You can still drop off mail-in ballots at drop boxes 24/7.
