Nearly a half million corrected ballots are in the mail as Maryland elections officials correct a mix-up that sent some mail-in voters the wrong party ballots ahead of the state’s June 23 primary.
State elections administrator Jared DeMarinis told WTOP the issue was discovered on May 14.
“We worked diligently to resolve this and making sure that there would be minimal impact on the voters,” DeMarinis said. “We had a May 29 deadline, but we got it all done today (Wednesday).”
The issue stemmed from a vendor error, he said, when the envelopes and ballot packets were being merged.
Because officials could not determine exactly who received the wrong ballot, the state sent replacements to all voters who had requested mail‑in ballots — about 447,000.
DeMarinis said safeguards are in place for voters who may have already returned one of the original ballots.
“We are quarantining or segregating those ballots from the others,” DeMarinis said. “We are contacting those voters to vote the replacement ballot because the replacement ballot is 100% accurate.”
The DOJ looks into the matter
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.”
“I’m going to ask the Attorney General of the United States, and the DOJ, to bring an immediate investigation into this situation,” he added.
“We have heard from the Department of Justice,” DeMarinis said. “We will be responding.”
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. “We’ll be responding to that letter in a timely manner.”
DeMarinis emphasized that Moore does not oversee election operations.
“The governor has no control over the State Board of Elections,” he said.
“As the state administrator, I’m in charge of running the day-to-day operations for the conduct of this election. I take this job very seriously. I understand we’re dealing with constitutional rights.”
Source
Thousands of corrected primary ballots mailed after Maryland mix-up, DOJ weighs in
