Polling Locations Across the State (North Beach: school, salaries, live)

[bufflove]

Yeah, they'll have record of your print request. You wouldn't be denied a vote, but you would be given a provisional ballot to fill out - which will mean even more work for election officials to cross-check and make sure you didn't also send in a printed ballot. Plus your provisional ballot wouldn't be counted until days or weeks after the election.

Just use the printed ballot; submit it as early as you feel comfortable so there's ample time for it to be processed. The state starts counting votes on Oct 1 so there's plenty of time for it to be counted, especially if you submit closer to Oct 1 than Nov 3.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by The Very Man Himself

Thanks, wish I had known that earlier. If it was explained on the website I missed it. I requested an absentee for both primary and general at the same*time. Guess my only alternative is to vote in person.

They have just started mailing out absentee ballots so you may still receive one in the mail. If so and you haven't mailed in the one you printed yet I would just use the one they send you. That one would be easier and faster to process. Either way your vote will count. Just don't send in both.


If you go to a polling place when you check in the system will show that you were issued an absentee ballot. If you tell them you didn't get it you would be directed to the provisional Judge and fill out a Provisional Ballot.. This would happen every time I worked as an Election Judge. Sometimes people would say they had requested an absentee but then found out they weren't going to travel, Sometimes they had requested one for both the Primary and the General and forgotten when the general came around. There was one Primary campaign in a previous election cycle that was having campaign people going door to door getting people to sign up for absentee ballots and the residents thought they were just supporting the candidate. (I know our Election Office was looking into that but don't know what the result was.)



In Maryland no one should be denied the chance to cast a ballot. 99% of the time it will go smoothly and the voter will cast the ballot via in person voting using a standard ballot. The out of the ordinary cases will be handled by a Provisional Ballot which gets sent in with documentation as to the reason for the ballot (using an inner and outer envelope to maintain the secrecy of the ballot if it is accepted) could not be handled in the 'normal way'. The job of the poll workers is to enable people to cast their ballots. It is the job of the Election Board to make the decisions in the unusual cases.

[HoCoMom]

Just got my confirmation email that I will be sent a ballot to my home and there is a link to track the ballot. The early voting sites were too far from home to be convenient and looking at the map it seems our area has gone from 2 to 1 day of voting sites. Our area usually has heavy voter turnout and I don’t want to have stand in line for a long time, so mail in seems like a good plan for me.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by MidValleyDad

They have just started mailing out absentee ballots so you may still receive one in the mail. If so and you haven't mailed in the one you printed yet I would just use the one they send you. That one would be easier and faster to process. Either way your vote will count. Just don't send in both.


If you go to a polling place when you check in the system will show that you were issued an absentee ballot. If you tell them you didn't get it you would be directed to the provisional Judge and fill out a Provisional Ballot.. This would happen every time I worked as an Election Judge. Sometimes people would say they had requested an absentee but then found out they weren't going to travel, Sometimes they had requested one for both the Primary and the General and forgotten when the general came around. There was one Primary campaign in a previous election cycle that was having campaign people going door to door getting people to sign up for absentee ballots and the residents thought they were just supporting the candidate. (I know our Election Office was looking into that but don't know what the result was.)



In Maryland no one should be denied the chance to cast a ballot. 99% of the time it will go smoothly and the voter will cast the ballot via in person voting using a standard ballot. The out of the ordinary cases will be handled by a Provisional Ballot which gets sent in with documentation as to the reason for the ballot (using an inner and outer envelope to maintain the secrecy of the ballot if it is accepted) could not be handled in the 'normal way'. The job of the poll workers is to enable people to cast their ballots. It is the job of the Election Board to make the decisions in the unusual cases.

So let's recap:

We have an individual who:
1) already applied for an absentee ballot
2) has printed a mail in ballot off the website and
3) now thinks he should go vote in person

This is why, among other reasons, I have felt from the beginning this whole process was going to turn into a cluster****.

The elected and appointed officials didn't help matters from the start by conflating absentee ballots (which have always existed and for which there were specific requirements) with the new mail in system. I think some did it intentionally (like those claiming that President Trump voted mail in when he actually did absentee voting which, again, had certain parameters to be met) while others just didn't care or know the difference.

Then you had the State Board of Elections declare that mail in and absentee would be interchangeable in meaning and called vote by mail.

Then you had every single registered voter sent a primary ballot back in June. I already described my experience at the local Post Office where I found between 40 and 50 of those ballots just discarded in the lobby.

Fun Fact:
Absentee and Provisional ballots historically haven't been counted until days or even weeks after the election has been certified. If those votes won't impact the election outcome then there's no impetus to count them in a timely fashion.

[The Very Man Himself]

Thanks all for the advice. I'll get it in early. I consider myself an alert voter, and am now embarrassed*I missed this.*OTOH, MD, and several other states have criticized USPS for issuing misleading*information. I do think there is big potential for a cluster.....

NBP, your opening sentence at post #8 was:
"That printed ballot apparently won't work."
That's why I mentioned voting in person.....

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by The Very Man Himself

Thanks all for the advice. I'll get it in early. I consider myself an alert voter, and am now embarrassed*I missed this.*OTOH, MD, and several other states have criticized USPS for issuing misleading*information. I do think there is big potential for a cluster.....

NBP, your opening sentence at post #8 was:
"That printed ballot apparently won't work."
That's why I mentioned voting in person.....

You are correct. I should have appended "because the printed ballot won't scan".

But the bottom line is that if someone like you who is at least semi-sentient got confused what will happen with the average Marylander?

[bufflove]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

You are correct. I should have appended "because the printed ballot won't scan".

But the bottom line is that if someone like you who is at least semi-sentient got confused what will happen with the average Marylander?

There's certainly an expectation that more ballots will be rejected than previous cycles, especially among young voters and minority voters.

Edit: if anyone else has questions about the election process be sure and ask someone. Either here or in real life. Make sure your vote counts.
https://elections.maryland.gov/votin...questions.html

[The Very Man Himself]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

You are correct. I should have appended "because the printed ballot won't scan".

But the bottom line is that if someone like you who is at least semi-sentient got confused what will happen with the average Marylander?

Being damned*by faint praise is worse than death by a thousand cuts....

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by bufflove

There's certainly an expectation that more ballots will be rejected than previous cycles, especially among young voters and minority voters.

Edit: if anyone else has questions about the election process be sure and ask someone. Either here or in real life. Make sure your vote counts.
https://elections.maryland.gov/votin...questions.html

Good thing this isn't a Republican state or you'd be screaming "voter suppression".

The instructions are indeed confusing and contradictory in a couple cases. When I worked for PG County Schools I used to call these Margarita Plans. Someone would get an idea or a directive late on Friday and everybody would go to the bar to develop the plan for Monday morning (the same thing is happening now with online school planning).

Originally Posted by The Very Man Himself

Being damned*by faint praise is worse than death by a thousand cuts....

C'mon, what I said sets you apart from the vast majority of this state's residents who get confused and start crying if they have to work with a number that has more than three zeroes.

[The Very Man Himself]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Good thing this isn't a Republican state or you'd be screaming "voter suppression".

The instructions are indeed confusing and contradictory in a couple cases. When I worked for PG County Schools I used to call these Margarita Plans. Someone would get an idea or a directive late on Friday and everybody would go to the bar to develop the plan for Monday morning (the same thing is happening now with online school planning).



C'mon, what I said sets you apart from the vast majority of this state's residents who get confused and start crying if they have to work with a number that has more than three zeroes.

I was being facetious. I'm made of sterner stuff.