corrected mail-in – Maryland elections officials discovered a vendor error on May 14 that sent some mail-in voters the wrong party primary ballots, and have been mailing corrected replacements to about 447,000 voters ahead of the June 23 primary. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division h
For voters in Maryland who opened their mail expecting the June 23 primary ballot for the party they intended to vote in, the mistake landed with a jolt: some received the wrong party’s ballots before officials could catch the error.
State elections administrator Jared DeMarinis said the problem was discovered on May 14. He described a frantic push to fix it before a key deadline. saying. “We worked diligently to resolve this and making sure that there would be minimal impact on the voters. ” and adding. “We had a May 29 deadline. but we got it all done today (Wednesday).”.
Nearly a half million corrected ballots have been mailed after the mix-up. DeMarinis said safeguards are now in place for voters who may have already returned one of the original ballots.
The source of the error, he said, was a vendor mistake during the process of merging envelopes and ballot packets.
Because officials could not determine exactly who received the incorrect ballot, the state sent replacements to every voter who had requested a mail-in ballot—about 447,000 people.
DeMarinis said the state is handling the already-submitted ballots separately. “We are quarantining or segregating those ballots from the others,” he said. “We are contacting those voters to vote the replacement ballot because the replacement ballot is 100% accurate.”
The political fallout quickly followed.
In a May 18 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump said Gov. Wes Moore “allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win.” Trump said he would ask the Attorney General of the United States. and the DOJ. to bring an immediate investigation. “We have heard from the Department of Justice,” DeMarinis said, adding that the state would respond.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to DeMarinis and the State Board of Elections on May 22, requesting that elections officials preserve “true and correct copies of all ballots, mailing records, other auditable records and all corrective actions taken.”
DeMarinis said the U.S. House Committee on House Administration also sent a letter, and that the state will respond “in a timely manner.”
Asked about responsibility, DeMarinis pushed back on the claim that the governor oversees election operations. “Moore does not oversee election operations,” he said. “The governor has no control over the State Board of Elections.”
“As the state administrator, I’m in charge of running the day-to-day operations for the conduct of this election,” he said. “I take this job very seriously. I understand we’re dealing with constitutional rights.”
With corrected ballots now in the mail and additional steps underway to segregate and replace any previously returned voting materials, the focus shifts to how smoothly those safeguards work before voters cast their ballots for the June 23 primary.
Maryland elections corrected ballots mail-in voters June 23 primary DOJ Civil Rights Division Jared DeMarinis Wes Moore Trump
So they mixed up the parties like it’s cereal? wild.
I don’t get how 447,000 people get the wrong ballot. Like if it’s supposed to be secure, where was the check at? Hopefully they actually fix the ones already sent back.
Is this the same thing as that thing with USPS delays? Cuz people keep blaming the post office. And then Trump’s out here saying it’s on purpose… sounds convenient either way.
This is why I hate mail voting. They say they’re “quarantining” ballots but how do you quarantine a mess that already went out? If someone opened the wrong one, are they gonna know which one they turned in later? Also “vendor error” sounds like a cop-out like they don’t wanna say who screwed up. I swear every election has some random technical thing.