In a letter Thursday to the state elections chief, Gov. Robert Ehrlich said, “the shortage of absentee ballots at the county boards of elections is approaching crisis proportions.”
But several local boards said while they are short of some ballot styles, their biggest problem is processing the huge jump in requests for absentee ballots.
That big increase was caused in large measure by Ehrlich urging voters concerned about the reliability of electronic voting machines to vote absentee. Voters have also received recorded phone calls from first lady Kendel Ehrlich and Ehrlich running-mate Kristen Cox recommending that they vote absentee.
Mike Morrill, a spokesman for Diebold Election Systems, which prints the ballots and makes the voting machines, said that 1 million ballots have been shipped, with an additional 200,000 on the way.
In Anne Arundel County, elections director Barbara Fisher reported, “We got a new supply of ballots” on Friday, “but we didn?t get all of them.” Her office has received more than 15,000 requests for absentee ballots, compared to 6,400 four years ago. The initial order for ballots was a week late in arriving, and that “just pushed everything back,” Fisher said.
The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is Tuesday. There are hundreds of ballot styles based on which district for County Council, General Assembly and Congress a voter lives in.
Betty Nordaas, elections director in Howard County, said her office “got more ballots, but we didn?t get all of them.” She has received 9,700 requests for ballots, but only counted 3,500 absentee ballots four years ago. “Right now we are current” and get the ballots out within 24 hours, Nordaas said.
In Baltimore County, elections chief Jacqueline McDaniel said she had not been short of ballots, but “I think I?m short now.” McDaniel said they?ve accepted 22,819 ballot requests, more than twice as many as four years ago. More of those requests are from Republicans than Democrats, though both parties have been urging voters to apply.
With 10 days left, Nordaas and McDaniel said overall preparations for the election were going well. All the boards will be working the next two weekends to get the work done.
