Baltimore Elections Officials Working For Smoother Voting Process

The general election is set for Nov. 8.

That is the day when voters across the country will decide who they want as their next president. Several key offices are up for grabs in Maryland that day, including for U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives and Baltimore's mayor and City Council.

Local leaders are working to ensure the general election is smoother than April’s primary. Concerns with the primary election eventually led the state to temporarily decertify the results Baltimore City due to problems with provisional ballots.

City Elections Board Director Armstead Jones said the number one issue his office had during the primary was not having enough election judges, along with not enough training for those they did have.

According to state election officials, that led to more than 1,000 provisional ballots being improperly scanned. Since then, the state Board of Elections has issued a new mandate that every polling place in Maryland must now have a dedicated, provisional ballot election judge.

City leaders said the main purpose of a meeting Wednesday in Baltimore was for elections officials to reassure voters that they will have an improved experience next month.

“It’s already a difficult time nationally and we want to make sure that in Baltimore City to the extent we can work with our election board we can adjust and be more efficient for the,” City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke said.

“We’re working to ensure we have judges in place and that the problem with the provisional ballot is fixed across the state,” Baltimore City Elections Board Director Armstead Jones said.

Jones said that for the general election his office has recruited 3,500 election judges and about 3,000 are already trained. This equates to about 600 more trained judges that in April’s primary.