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Some Marylanders who applied for mail-in ballots online are still receiving applications in the mail, leading some lawmakers and voting rights advocates to worry about voter confusion in an already unprecedented election.
State Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery) said she and her staff went through the State Board of Elections鈥� multistep process on July 29. And although voters who fill out the online request aren鈥檛 supposed to receive an application in the mail, Kagan and her staff members all got one on Thursday.
Kagan said she and her staff aren鈥檛 alone: She took to Facebook to ask if anyone else had applied online but still received a mailed application, and garnered dozens of responses from bewildered voters. Others said they鈥檇 applied online and didn鈥檛 receive an application in the mail.
Thousands of Marylanders have filled out the online request form so far, and Kagan worries that the extra mailed applications will confuse voters and cause extra work for election workers. She said voters who receive the mail-in applications might return them as a way to safeguard their ballots, forcing election staff to double check their application status.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just an extra step, and an extra burden, and extra money that鈥檚 spent,鈥� Kagan said.
Deputy Election Administrator Nikki Charlson said voters can check their application status via the state鈥檚. If voters applied online, they might not need to resend the mail-in form, Charlson said.
Charlson said election officials pulled online application data on Aug. 6, and some ballot applications received prior to that date might not have been processed by election workers at that time.
鈥淚f you know you鈥檝e submitted an online request and you have a confirmation number, then just check back and give it a few more days,鈥� Charlson said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of interest in voting by mail, and so a lot of people are submitting requests and [local boards of elections] are processing them as quickly as they can.鈥�
Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) ordered that every registered voter in the state receive a mail-in ballot application in the wake of errors in the state鈥檚 June 2 primary. During that election, which saw high turnout and was Maryland鈥檚 first largely vote-by-mail election, registered voters automatically received their ballots in the mail.
Election officials say Hogan鈥檚 plan will cost the state extra money, and Election Administrator Linda H. Lamone in July asked state officials for an to conduct the November election. That includes an extra $5.6 million for ballot requests alone, and $1.8 million in postage.
The $1.8 million in postage reflects only the state鈥檚 half, with local boards expected to foot the other half of the bill. Elections board members recently state officials to pay the entire cost.
Kagan worried that election officials were wasting money by mailing applications to people who already submitted them online.
鈥淚鈥檓 really disappointed,鈥� Kagan said. 鈥淭his was already a cumbersome and expensive process.鈥�
The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is Oct. 20.
