Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project
“Governor Larry Hogan’s election plan gave voters a choice: to request an absentee ballot, or to vote safely in person by opening the state’s polling places. That was the right move to empower voters while learning from the missteps that have brought chaos and dysfunction to so many of the pandemic primaries. Unfortunately, the State Board of Elections—under pressure from activists single-mindedly pushing for a universal mail-in election—instead backed a plan to radically scale back polling places in November.
That step is not only unnecessary, it risks causing unconscionably long lines that may discourage voters. The voters stuck in those lines this November will know who to thank for their situation: the activists and politicians who are more committed to a reckless plan to jury-rig a vote-by-mail election than in finding real solutions that empower voters.”