Maryland election officials are scrambling to contain a full-blown mail-ballot fiasco after thousands of voters reportedly received the wrong primary ballots — a blunder Republicans say is exactly why Americans no longer trust the system.
The problem exploded after a state contractor mistakenly mailed incorrect party ballots to some of the more than 400,000 Maryland voters who requested mail-in ballots for next month’s primary election. Now, state officials are racing to send replacement ballots while telling voters to shred the originals and pretend this never happened. Naturally, conservatives aren’t buying the “nothing to see here” routine.
The Maryland Freedom Caucus is demanding federal scrutiny of the state’s voter rolls and election procedures, warning that flooding the system with replacement ballots creates yet another opening for confusion, mistakes and potential abuse. “The Maryland Freedom Caucus is calling on Secretary of the Election Board, Jared DeMarinis, to immediately release Maryland’s voter rolls to the federal government so a proper audit can be conducted to determine the sources of the mistake,” the group said.
The caucus also blasted the state’s plan to simply remail ballots en masse without clearly explaining how officials will distinguish valid ballots from defective ones already circulating across the state. “We caution against reissuing another 400,000 ballots and we demand to know how the state intends to differentiate between the first and second printing of these ballots,” the statement continued.
And here’s the question hanging over the entire mess: What exactly happens when voters accidentally send back the wrong ballot anyway? “The citizens have a right to know the exact process by which ballots will be scrutinized,” the caucus added. “With 400,000 double ballots in circulation, we need to be absolutely sure that there is one vote, one person.”
That phrase — “one vote, one person” — has become the rallying cry for Republicans who say Democrats have spent years dismissing legitimate election-security concerns as paranoia while repeatedly presiding over embarrassing administrative failures.
The Freedom Caucus didn’t hold back. “The Maryland Democrats and the bureaucrats over at the Board of Elections have proven once again that they are the biggest purveyors of voter suppression tactics in the state of Maryland,” the group charged. “After it was brought to light that roughly 400,000 mail-in ballots were sent out incorrectly, voters who received these flawed ballots will now receive a second ballot, according to the state. Many people’s mail-in votes could be erroneously submitted using the old ballot and their vote suppressed because of the negligence of the Maryland Board of Elections and the Maryland Democrats.”
State Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis moved quickly into damage-control mode Friday, insisting officials are “diligently working” to preserve confidence in the election process. “Mail-in voting is an integral facet of the electoral process,” DeMarinis said. “With over 500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in its integrity or accuracy; that is why I have arranged the sending of replacement ballots.”
He also promised transparency while acknowledging the obvious political nightmare unfolding just weeks before voting ramps up. “Please be assured that we are actively answering phones and responding to emails and will remain transparent as we navigate through this situation,” he said. “We will make every effort to ensure that everyone affected knows the situation and how to cast their ballot. Every vote matters, your voice will be heard, and our elections will remain verified, open, transparent, and secure.”
The vendor responsible for the error, Taylor Print & Visual Impressions, admitted that ballot packets intended for one voter segment were mistakenly mailed to another. The company apologized and said corrected ballots would be mailed by May 29. But the fix itself raised eyebrows. Instead of retrieving the flawed ballots, voters are simply being instructed to destroy them on their own. “Voters should securely discard or destroy the original ballot materials they received and use only the replacement ballot sent in the new mailing,” the vendor said. Because apparently the new gold standard for election security is the honor system.
The company insisted safeguards exist to prevent duplicate voting and claimed “there is no risk of duplicate voting as a result of this issue.” Election officials say only corrected ballots will ultimately count.
Republicans, however, point to the episode as part of a larger pattern. The Republican National Committee has already been battling Maryland in court over voter-roll maintenance, accusing the state of failing to remove deceased or otherwise ineligible voters from registration lists. The lawsuit alleges that some Maryland counties somehow have voter-registration totals approaching — or even exceeding — the number of eligible adult citizens living there. “Marylanders deserve to have confidence in their elections and to know that their state is properly maintaining its voter rolls,” RNC Chair Joe Gruters said when the lawsuit was filed. “The State Board of Elections has failed to do its job and remove ineligible or deceased voters from its rolls. Marylanders have a right to accurate voter rolls.”
According to the complaint, at least two of Maryland’s largest counties allegedly reported more registered voters than adult citizens over age 18, while other counties posted registration rates above 95% despite Census estimates placing statewide voter registration closer to 75%.
The legal fight mirrors similar GOP-led challenges in states including Hawaii and New Jersey as Republicans continue pressing for tighter voter-roll oversight nationwide. And now Maryland officials get to explain why some voters opened their mailboxes and found the wrong ballots sitting inside.
