Maryland will reissue 400,000 mail ballots after voters reported errors

Maryland will have to reissue roughly 400,000 mail ballots after voters reported receiving ballots for the wrong party.

The state started sending mail ballots this week ahead of the June 23 gubernatorial primary to those who had requested them.

State Board Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis said the majority of voters received the correct party ballot, but it’s not possible for the state to research which voters received incorrect ballots. So they are replacing the whole batch.

Voters who were mailed a ballot before May 14 are affected.

“In order to maintain the security and integrity of mail-in voting, I’ve requested and ordered the sending of replacement ballots to all of those voters that were affected by this error,” DeMarinis said in an interview Friday.

The board of elections will use longstanding practices to ensure voters only vote once.

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“We have multiple safeguards in place to protect against someone voting twice,” DeMarinis said. That includes codes on the ballots to know which voter the ballot was assigned to and if it was cast and counted.

DeMarinis said the state’s vendor, Minnesota-based Taylor Corporation, made the error and will reissue new ballots at no additional cost to the state.

“We want to be proactive and address the situation head-on and will provide more instructions to those affected as soon as possible,” DeMarinis said in an interview Friday.

DeMarinis said voters should contact the State Board of Elections if they have questions about what to do with their ballot or whether they were affected.

The board will use social media and also U.S. mail to notify affected voters.

Voters who requested their ballot be delivered by email are not affected.

Voting by mail has become increasingly popular but surged in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 350,000 voters cast their ballots by mail during the 2022 gubernatorial primary, or about one-third of all votes cast.

The method has faced scrutiny from President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers and has been criticized without evidence.

Voters have until June 16 to request a mail-in ballot.