Civil rights groups say they are distressed that officials will not be able to supply absentee ballots for all residents who want them.
“It doesn?t concern us. It outrages us,” said Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the Baltimore City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
“This is the protection of voter rights we?re talking about. We hopeand pray that they are doing everything they can to get this done.”
On Monday, state Board of Elections Member Joan Beck said voters who need absentee ballots might be out of luck.
“The reality is that … some voters won?t get their ballot,” she said. “It?s going to come back and bite us.”
Gov. Robert Ehrlich is recommending that voters request absentee ballots because of his concerns about the reliability and security of electronic voting equipment. This has produced a flood of applications to local elections board. More than 1 million absentee ballots have been printed, but officials are having trouble processing all the requests.
More than 161,000 ballots had been requested as of Monday morning, almost three times the number who actually voted absentee four years ago.
Ehrlich?s request is creating the backlog, said Meredith Curtis, a Maryland ACLU spokeswoman.
“We do understand why they?re having trouble meeting the intense need for absentee ballots,” she said. “Nevertheless, election officials now have a responsibility to provide them.”
University of Baltimore law professor Elizabeth Samuels said voters who properly requested absentee ballots would have the right to take legal action if they don?t get them.
Attorneys with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who sued Baltimore City to keep the polls open an extra hour during the primary election, said they are monitoring the situation with absentee ballots in Maryland.
