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Democrats Blast Ehrlich's Absentee-Voting Initiative
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has long believed electronic voting systems are susceptible to fraud, his top policy adviser said.
(Marvin Joseph/twp - The Washington Post)
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Both Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said Wednesday that a special session would be pointless and that, with only seven weeks to go before the general election, the state should focus on fixing the current system.
There were a mix of problems that touched off chaotic scenes at some polling places during the Sept. 12 primary. Some of the state's newly acquired electronic poll books, which were used to check in voters, crashed repeatedly. And there were problems synchronizing the machines, which meant that theoretically a voter could check in more than once and cast multiple ballots.
Elections officials said they found no evidence of fraud.
Lamone and Diebold Election System officials have pledged to fix the problems in time for the November election. And Lamone said the electronic voting system is the most safe and accurate available. By contrast, absentee ballots are more susceptible to voter fraud and coercion, she said, and the paper presents problems for blind and visually impaired voters who can cast ballots independently on the touch-screen machines.
"Election administrators throughout the state of Maryland have complete faith in this touch-screen system ," she said. "We have faith in this voting system."
Lamone also said yesterday that she disagreed with a draft audit prepared by the Department of Legislative Services -- reported yesterday by the Baltimore Sun -- that found that the state didn't properly review "local board of elections' compliance with applicable election laws and regulations."
She was reluctant to talk about the confidential draft report before issuing her formal response. But she said the state does "a whole lot of things to make sure the local boards are in compliance with state law. We are in fact proactively working with the counties."
Democrats also denounced Ehrlich for vetoing a bill this year that would have allowed early voting in the state, saying the governor was simply trying to keep voters away from the polls. That veto was also overridden, but the law was struck down by the Maryland Court of Appeals last month, 11 days before early voting was to take place.
Washington Post staff writers Ann E. Marimow and John Wagner contributed to this report.
