Washington Post: With 100k votes already mailed in, in-person voters cast ballots to fill Cummings’s seat

Washington Post: With 100k votes already mailed in, in-person voters cast ballots to fill Cummings’s seat

Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, said voting advocates aimed to avoid that very situation, but are hopeful there will be fewer problems with voters receiving their ballots in June. The special election on Tuesday was arranged too quickly for the state to launch a widespread voter education campaign, she told reporters on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. She urged Hogan to ensure adequate funding for extensive communications ahead of the primary. “I’m sure we would have seen more voters participating in the 7th District special election if more of an effort was made to reach them,” Antoine said.

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) called for the special election to proceed almost entirely by mail to prevent the spread of coronavirus at traditional polling places.

The race between Democrat Kweisi Mfume, who held the seat before Cummings, and Republican Kimberly Klacick, gives officials a chance to test procedures in the Baltimore-based congressional district ahead of the state’s primary on June 2.

The state mailed ballots to all active, eligible voters and opened three voting centers, where volunteers donned masks, gloves and face shields and wiped down voting machines and other surfaces that voters touched while exercising their right to vote.

About 20 percent of the nearly 500,000 ballots distributed by mail were returned by early Monday, according to data compiled by the state Board of Elections. Ballots will be counted until May 8 as long as they are postmarked by Tuesday. …

Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, said voting advocates aimed to avoid that very situation, but are hopeful there will be fewer problems with voters receiving their ballots in June.

The special election on Tuesday was arranged too quickly for the state to launch a widespread voter education campaign, she told reporters on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. She urged Hogan to ensure adequate funding for extensive communications ahead of the primary.

“I’m sure we would have seen more voters participating in the 7th District special election if more of an effort was made to reach them,” Antoine said.