Gov. Robert Ehrlich said he expects a lawsuit to be filed in the fairly near future to block new measures to encourage early voting that were enacted despite his veto and that he says lack safeguards to prevent fraud.
“I think this will end up in one or more courts,” Ehrlich told a Board of Public Works meeting Wednesday. “I think we?re going to see action in the fairly near future.”
Partisan wrangling continued over the new law, which establishes five days of voting before the election on touch-screen voting machines throughout the state without requiring any identification other than name, birth date and signature.
Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Terry Lierman said it was “ludicrous” for Ehrlich to threaten the entire election process over his fear of high voter turnout. Party spokesman David Paulson said, “It?s solely about his getting re-elected.”
For the second time in two weeks, Ehrlich used the board meeting to grill state election administrator Linda Lamone over the kind of electronic safeguards that will be in place to prevent people from voting more than once. The new law permits registered voters to vote anywherein the state.
Lamone assured Ehrlich that new e-poll books will record voting by voters in “real time,” preventing them from multiple votes, but the governor and representatives of True Vote Maryland were skeptical of the machinery. Lamone also noted that in 2004, “we were able to identify [only] one person who tried to vote twice.”
An organization called Marylanders for Fair Elections is trying to collect about 52,000 signatures to put the new law on the November ballot. An attorney general?s opinion said the emergency legislation cannot be petitioned to referendum, but that opinion will likely be challenged in a lawsuit.
“Early voting is really not the issue here,” said Tom Roskelly, head of Marylanders for Fair Elections. “It is the lack of safeguards.”
As an election judge, Roskelly said, “I?ve seen voter fraud. I?ve seen it in the city of Annapolis. It?s easy to do. Most people expect to be asked for identification, and most people will willingly provide it.”
Many states require identification for early voting, but in Maryland, identification can be asked for only if a poll judge challenges the identity of a voter. “We?re the only state to use a touch-screen voting system statewide with early voting without an ID requirement,” said Audra Miller, a spokeswoman for the state Republican Party.
