Sheila Dixon, former mayor of Baltimore, supports investigation of election results. (Courtesy photo)
On Thursday, the Maryland State Board of Elections announced that it had decertified the results of Baltimore City’s primary elections and launched a precinct-by-precinct review of irregularities. The State Board also said the Baltimore City Board of Canvassers is also expected to rescind their certification as well.
Linda H. Lamone, state administrator with the Board of Elections, said in a statement:
“Over the last several days, the State Board of Elections has been conducting its normal review and reconciliation of the election data for the recent primary. Because of discrepancies in some of the data for Baltimore City, the State Administrator has decided that the election data for all precincts in the City will be reviewed. In light of that decision, the Baltimore City Board of Canvassers will be rescinding its certification of the election results pending completion of the State Board’s review. It is expected that the Baltimore City Board of Canvassers will rescind its certification today at 6:00 p.m.”
In an interview with the AFRO Lamone indicated that there were three specific issues that arose in this primary election that prompted the announcement today:
- First, on Tuesday evening Baltimore City found a number of misplaced ballots that had not been counted. Lamone noted that this is not uncommon and, in fact, occurs across the country on a fairly consistent basis.
- Second, the State Board of Elections requires all local boards to provide to it a post-election reconciliation report prior to state certification. In reviewing Baltimore City’s report the State Board found a number of inconsistencies in some of the key metrics. In particular, she cited an irregularity found between the number of voters that checked in to precincts as compared to the number of ballots cast in those precincts.
- Third, deadlines as outlined by the state of Maryland for recourse in the election were fast approaching. In fact, today is the deadline to request a recount for the primary election and Monday is the deadline to file a legal motion to contest the election. Lamone said she felt that with the looming deadlines, decertification was the fairest thing to do for both voters and candidates to ensure that things were handled correctly. She said in essence this would put a hold on the deadlines which would restart after the investigation was completed.
Lamone said that several other county boards of elections have offered to assist Baltimore City in the precinct by precinct review. She indicated they will use today and tomorrow to organize the votes by precinct, by Monday she expects them to begin the process of reconciling the votes and expects the entire process to be completed before the end of next week.
The results of the election were certified on Monday with State Senator Catherine Pugh winning the mayoral race by slightly less than 3,000 votes. Immediately after the election on April 26 a group of activists began lobbying Gov. Larry Hogan for a recount claiming that irregularities in vote counting were common. Dixon, on Wednesday, said that she accepted the election results and was ready to move on.
The surprise decertification scrambled the election, meaning that not only is the winner of the hotly contested mayoral primary in question, but so are the other races that took place in Baltimore that day, such as city council, Senator and President.
In an interview with the AFRO Dixon said “The fact that there were so many irregularities, complaints and issues it’s evident that someone needs to look at what took place during the early voting and on Election Day.” She went on to say, “The week that I was there they threw out over some 2,800 provisional ballots. I’ve heard horror stories from citizens. So, it’s good that we have an outside entity looking at what took place with these ballots.”
