MARYLAND — The State Board of Elections held a meeting to discuss changes for the November election.
During their meeting, the Board approved early voting to be from Oct. 26 - Nov. 2, from 7am - 8pm.
Election Day on Nov. 3, will be the ninth day of in-person voting.
On early voting days, approximately 80 vote centers will open statewide. On Election Day, approximately 350 vote centers will be open statewide.
Voters can cast their vote at any vote center in their county of residence. The Board also plans to make at least 127 ballot drop boxes available statewide. They indicated it expects the ballot drop-off containers to be used in future elections.
They also approved emergency regulation changes regarding ballot drop boxes, training of election judges, date stamping return envelopes, among other approved changes.
Some of those approved changes include allowing remote training of election judges and from Nov. 2 on locals must date-stamp each return envelope.
Maryland election law requires the return envelope of every absentee ballot get a "date received" stamp.
The Board says so many envelopes will be coming in, they need to store ballots in batches, with date received labels on the containers, until the day before the election.
The Board will mail applications for mail-in ballots to all Maryland voters at the end of August, or residents may request a mail-in ballot online by visiting elections.maryland.gov.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 20th.
When the Board meets again, they will go over the list of every voting center location locals are looking at, primarily public high schools.
