Republicans are in demand in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties as Tuesday’s primary election approaches.
Not as candidates, mind you, but as poll judges to oversee the voting.
State law requires an equal number of judges from both parties at polling places. In counties where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a ratio of 5-to-1, as they do in Prince George’s, that can be a challenge.
“It is very difficult to recruit Republican election judges,” said Alisha Alexander, Prince George’s county elections administrator.
Alexander said that after seeking Republican volunteers through advertisements and mailers to newly registered voters didn’t do the trick, she has been forced to recruit independents and Democrats to fill Republican slots to keep the lines at polls moving.
In Montgomery County, officials are equally hard up for GOP election judges. Margie Roher, spokeswoman for Montgomery’s Board of Elections, said the county is still searching for 202 judges to work the polls on election day. Of those slots, 178 are for Republicans.
“The more judges there are, the quicker the lines go,” Roher said.
During the 2006 primaries, voters in both counties complained of problems at the polls, including long lines, human error and electronic machines that did not work properly.
Echoing those concerns, Maryland’s American Civil Liberties Union has contacted the state’s Board of Elections about poll judge training in Prince George’s County.
Five-time election judge Rebecca Wilson, of Hyattsville, said she and her fellow judges were told in a training session that if a voter asks to vote by paper ballot instead of with an electronic machine, the judges should give them a provisional ballot and warn them a board will decide whether that ballot counts.
State election law says that if a voter is eligible to vote on a machine and casts a provisional ballot instead, that vote is void. Provisional ballots are intended for people whose name may not be on a particular precinct registry or if there is a problem confirming their eligibility to vote.
State Board of Elections leaders told Prince George’s officials to send out additional instructions to judges reminding them of election law about the use of provisional ballots.
