Maryland still can't determine how many voters got incorrect ballots

BALTIMORE - Questions on how election workers will handle a statewide ballot-printing error still remain, as Maryland election officials begin counting mailed ballots Monday and the primary election is just weeks away.

The Maryland State Board of Elections recently revealed that voters across the state received mail-in ballots with the wrong party affiliation, forcing the agency to send more than 500,000 replacement ballots. But neither the board nor the vendor responsible has publicly disclosed how many voters actually received incorrect ballots. Local election officials told The Baltimore Sun on Monday that they also do not know that number. And the lack of answers prompted Republican lawmakers and voters to turn to their election officials for clarity.

"If you receive a ballot from a registered Republican who submitted the incorrect ballot of Democratic candidates for office, but did not submit their correct ballot, what is the process for invalidating the erroneous ballot?" said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel and House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy in a joint Monday statement.

The Maryland State Board of Elections and Taylor Print & Visual Impressions did not respond to requests for comment.

Election analysts say it is not unusual for officials to need time to understand the extent of a ballot-related problem. Election offices have dealt with ballot-mailing and vendor problems before, though typically on a smaller scale, said Alysoun McLaughlin, director of the Election Resilience Lab at the University of Maryland and a former Montgomery County election administrator.

State officials say safeguards are already in place to ensure eligible ballots are counted only once. Jared DeMarinis, the Maryland State Board of Elections administrator, said last week that voters who returned original ballots would not automatically have their votes disqualified as long as the ballot had the correct party affiliation.

Local election officials added that counties will separate original ballots from replacement ballots during counting.

"The heavy lift was conducted by the state to reissue ballots based on our mail-in ballot roster," said Clifford Tatum, Baltimore City's elections director. "Baltimore City staff has had to establish a process to separate the (first) issued ballots from the replacement ballots."

The process, known as sequestration, is designed to prevent duplicate ballots from being counted while preserving a voter's ability to cast a ballot if they never return the replacement version.

According to McLaughlin, each mail-in ballot packet contains a unique barcode tied to a voter's record. When replacement ballots were issued, officials likely voided the tracking numbers associated with the original ballots, allowing replacement ballots to move through the normal counting process while original ballots are flagged for review.

"If you return the original envelope, then it's going to go into a separate container with the ballots that need to be segregated until the end," McLaughlin said.

Election workers then review those ballots individually to determine whether the voter also submitted a replacement ballot. If both were returned, only one ballot can be counted. If no replacement ballot was submitted, officials can review the original ballot to determine whether it is eligible to count.

McLaughlin described the process as "standard protocol," noting that election offices use similar procedures whenever voters request replacement ballots because one was lost, damaged or never received.

"It's the same process that they would have followed if you called them on an individual level and said, ‘My dog ate my ballot, I spilled coffee on my ballot, my kid drew on my ballot,' whatever it is," she said. "It's just a matter of the volume of these ballots that they will be dealing with."

While the additional review creates more work for staff, McLaughlin said it does not raise concerns about ballots being counted twice. "It's certainly time-consuming," she said.

Buckel and Pippy added that voter trust in the election process is imperative. County election officials countered that they have not seen evidence of voter confidence being undermined.

"I have no concerns at all about our voters' confidence in our work or the administration of elections," Montgomery County elections director Boris Brajkovic told The Sun. "Voters mainly inquired about the next steps and the time frame when they would receive their replacement ballots."

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 7:38 PM.