Maryland Elections

Hundreds of people were in line Monday morning before the early voting center at Honeygo Run Community Center in Perry Hall opened at 7 a.m. People waited more than an hour and half in line before being able to vote.  

The Maryland State Board of Elections is weighing a proposal to replace the small polling places that serve one or two voter precincts with a much smaller number of large vote centers. Local election officials are pushing the idea in response to a massive shortage of election judges and locations that can house polling sites.

The State Board of Elections plans to begin mailing all voters applications for absentee ballots on Aug. 24, State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone said Tuesday in a letter to Gov. Larry Hogan.

Although the state is encouraging all voters to submit their ballots by mail, Hogan has said state law requires every polling place to be open on Election Day this November. But legal experts say the state of emergency Hogan declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic could give the governor broad power to change how and when people vote.

Voters in Maryland’s June 2 primaries will be sent mail-in ballots, while some will have the option of casting a ballot on election day at one to four polling places per county, the Maryland State Board of Elections said in a Thursday afternoon meeting.

The decision is a departure from last week’s meeting, in which the board recommended there be no in-person voting in June because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

Campaign headquarters are usually filled with the nonstop motion of excited volunteers and harried election staff. But on a recent Sunday, Shannon Sneed, who’s running for city council president, sat alone at her headquarters’ conference table, making calls to voters as campaign volunteers and staffers followed suit in their own homes.

Under the novel coronavirus pandemic, the nature of local campaigning has changed: On any other sunny weekend afternoon, the freshman city council member and her team would have been knocking on doors throughout the city to connect with voters. Instead, Sneed and every other candidate in major city races have cancelled the usual barrage of rallies, fundraisers and door-knocking outings in order to limit the spread of the virus. 

Maryland’s gubernatorial campaigns are increasingly being funded by corporate interests and out-of-state donors, according to a report released Wednesday by the advocacy group Maryland PIRG.

More than a dozen Democrats running for the late Congressman Elijah Cummings's seat pitched their platforms to a crowd at the Baltimore County Progressive Democrats Club forum on Tuesday.

Many said they were inspired by Cummings, but they pointed out they had their own agendas.

An ad released this week by Gov. Larry Hogan’s campaign spends four minutes lauding the governor’s accomplishments on more than a dozen transportation projects.

Through a series of television news clips and video of press conferences, the ad describes how Hogan advanced efforts to widen I-270, the Capital Beltway, the Baltimore Beltway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway; extended the I-95 North toll lanes; and lowered tolls — among other things.

Democratic candidate for governor Ben Jealous is accusing Gov. Larry Hogan of mocking his speech impairment.

The dispute stems from a video Hogan’s campaign posted online on Monday. The roughly 30-second video shows Jealous mixing up his words — saying “Virginia” when he means Maryland and “president” when he means governor.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and Democrat Ben Jealous met Monday for their one and only debate of the election. The two offered distinct visions not only for what Maryland should look like in four years, but also for what life is like now.

Marylanders have been barraged for months by TV ads attacking Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous, but Jealous didn’t respond with any TV ads of his own after the June primary ended.

With about seven weeks to go before Election Day, Jealous begins airing his first ad of the general election on Monday. The ad is playing on all four broadcast stations in the Baltimore market.

Let’s say you buy a new TV for $500 dollars. Maryland’s current 6-percent sales tax would add $30 on top of that.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous announced Thursday that if elected, he would cut the state sales tax to 5.75 percent, saving you $1.25 on that TV purchase.

In his quest for the Democratic nomination for governor, Ben Jealous raised more than $2 million. Nearly half of his roughly 20,000 donors had addresses in California, Maryland or New York. But several dozen donors listed addresses outside the United States.

A new poll of likely Maryland voters shows Democrat Ben Jealous lagging behind Republican Gov. Larry Hogan by nine points. Commissioned by Jealous’s campaign, the poll also shows that about a third of voters don’t know who he is.

State lawmakers and election officials said Thursday that problems with nearly 72,000 voter registrations likely kept people from voting during last month’s primary. But during a rare mid-summer legislative hearing, they also said it’s impossible to know how many people chose not to cast ballots as a result of the errors.

The General Assembly will look quite different in January following Tuesday’s primary, in which several incumbent state legislative leaders lost their seats.

There's a rare nonpartisan group in Baltimore working the voter rosters - making calls, offering rides and just generally nudging folks to the polls.

The folks at the No Boundaries Coalition aren't pushing for a specific candidate. They're just pushing people to vote, in an effort to increase voter turnout in an area that has generally seen low voter turnout numbers. 

As voting got under way Tuesday morning, there were several reports of polling mishaps that caused some voters to leave without casting ballots.

At least three polling places in Baltimore City opened later than the legally required 7 a.m. start due to ballot scanner problems.

As many as 80,000 voters may have to cast provisional ballots in Tuesday’s primary as a result of a glitch in computer software installed last year by the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration.

The state legislature’s ethics committee is investigating Baltimore City House Delegation Chair Curt Anderson for alleged sexual misconduct.

The nine Democrats running for governor faced off Wednesday in their fourth debate, which was taped and will air on WMAR-2 News on June 13 at 8 p.m. WYPR’s Rachel Baye discusses the debate with Nathan Sterner.

A new poll released Tuesday shows that Gov. Larry Hogan is as popular as ever. With the election a little more than six months away, 70 percent of the Maryland residents polled by Goucher College approve of the way he is doing his job.

But the poll also shows that Hogan’s re-election is far from a sure thing. Less than half of likely voters said they would pick Hogan over one of seven Democrats vying to unseat him, and about a quarter said they were undecided.

Krishanti Vignarajah formally launched her campaign for governor on Tuesday after announcing her intent to run online last month.

State Sen. Richard Madaleno formally announced on Monday that he is running for governor in next year’s election.

The Montgomery County Democrat enters an already crowded field of Democrats vying to unseat Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. 

Former NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous has formally announced his plans to run for governor next year.

The 44-year-old Democrat and California native made the announcement Wednesday morning at a rally outside his cousin’s West Baltimore flower shop. His 24-minute speech highlighted his ties to Baltimore and a family legacy of civil rights activism, including his mother’s efforts to desegregate Western High School as a young teen.