ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The House Republican Caucus yesterday expressed concern regarding Governor Wes Moore signing legislation that compromises the integrity of Maryland’s elections.
House Bill 535 – Election Law – Ballot Issuance, Processing, and Reporting Procedures and 2024 Primary Date, an omnibus bill dealing with numerous election-related issues, allows for ballot curing via text message. This means when a mail-in ballot has questionable validity and is rejected, the Board of Elections may contact the voter via text message to verify the voter cast that ballot. There is no guarantee that the person receiving and subsequently answering the text message is the voter in question.
Republican efforts to amend the bill to include a signature verification process were rejected in the House of Delegates. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 27 states have some form of signature verification; states representing all segments of the political spectrum, from traditionally liberal states like Oregon and California to more conservative states like Florida and Texas.
“Maryland has experienced an explosion in the number of mail-in ballots cast in recent elections and we must do everything in our power to minimize the opportunities to cast a fraudulent ballot,” said Delegate Mike Griffith (District 35A – Cecil and Harford Counties). “While ballot access is important and we should be making sure every eligible Marylander has the opportunity to vote, the security of our voting process is just as important. Picking one over the other is a false choice, we should be prioritizing both. Unfortunately, this bill prioritizes ballot access at the expense of ballot security. Marylanders deserve more.”
Moore is less…
You are right. Maryland is no more than a cult now. The state is gone.
U are so rite Nikko. MD is doomed. So sad.
I love how all of the Gaslighting Buzz words are used in these comments. Cult, doomed, ruined, … All apply to the GOP. Maryland should enact a law requiring fingerprint match to vote. How do you know it is the person on the license? Could be someone who is a look alike? Right. Why would someone steal a mail in ballot and include their text/phone number on the stolen ballot? Just as likely a bankrobber would leave their business card at the bank. Just another GOP concern/nonconcern created to cause election doubt. Because we all know who votes by mail. Funny how the party of election fraud claims appears to be the only party getting caught in the act of election fraud. Alternate slate of electors, strong arming election officials in their own party, making false claims that get tossed out of court, and of course, planning the Green Bay sweep, which is a fancy name for election denying overthrow of the process.
This is the beginning of the end for Maryland. Moore is the Maryland version of Newsom in California. This guy will ruin this state before his tenure is over. Unemployment and bankruptcy will go through the roof. Business will pull up tent pegs and move to other states. He is already tapping into and draining our reserves that Hogan build up over the years. Can’t wait to retire and MOVE!!!
As a person who works the Election as a Judge, I find this to be a HORRIBLE idea! There’s no credible way to check the true identity of the person you speak with on the phone, and it could open up the Voting Process to fraudulent practices from the persons involved. Plus, phone usage isn’t allowed inside the Voting area in/of itself. That’s a State Law! Let’s NOT do this!
ok, hmmm uh hum who will be sending the text? Is the election board going to have a cell phone & can we have the #?
there are things that should be done to improve elections before this.
part of this is, which isn’t disclosed how many ballots does this effect?
Just another way for the dem legislature to ensure all voting insures dems and their agenda win.
In Maryland, since 2012, all elections local and national, there were 8 fraudulent Mail In ballots cast in Maryland. Once again, a non-issue/issue to create doubt in the process knowing it will have zero impact on the outcome. The number of national/state election contests won by the margin of all the fraudulent ballots cast in the past 11 years——ZERO, ZIP, NADDA! Like I said, designed to sow doubt and nothing more.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Take a statistics course sometime. Do some legitimate research
It’s pretty obvious when a politician is not willing to provide the basic common sense safeguards surrounding our votes, that they Bank On election fraud
Why is my comment awaiting moderation?
There’s more internal controls surrounding the ordering of a pizza then there are surrounding a mail-in ballot