City Council advances resolution to investigate issues during primary election

BALTIMORE – Problems at the polls during the primary election in Maryland were a focal point during a Baltimore City Council meeting Monday night.

Following several reported issues, Councilwoman Odette Ramos last Wednesday called for an informational hearing with the city and state election boards.

Ramos was not present at the meeting due to a COVID-19 diagnosis, but Councilman Kristerfer Burnett introduced a resolution Monday night calling for a hearing and touched on several issues that occurred during the primary.

"There have been several irregularities that have eroded the confidence in the voting system," said Burnett.

This included incorrect mail-in ballots being sent to voters.

Back in June, Baltimore City elections director Armstead Jones explained 150 people received a new voter registration card after being placed in the incorrect precinct. Of th3 150 people affected, 37 requested a mail-in ballot. Corrected ballots had to be resent to those residents.

"In a major senior housing complex, the residents got the correct ballots to begin with for mail-in, and then got a letter and another ballot that was incorrect, and so they had to get a third ballot to be able to vote because they nullified the first two ballots," said Ramos over a Zoom call. "That was super confusing for residents."

On primary day, election workers also ran into problems at polling places.

At certain locations, including the Enoch Pratt Free Library Central location in Mount Vernon, the chief judge showed up an hour and a half after polls were supposed to open at 7 a.m. This left some voters frustrated.

Ramos said at several locations across the city, there were not enough judges, which forced election workers to be assigned a different job title on the spot with no training.

"We did have a shortage of election judges and in particular, chief judges. So I've had two constituents who were made chief judges that day and they were not given the chief judge training," said Ramos.

Additionally, 12 flash drives with election data were misplaced following the polls closing. The drives keep a digital record of votes from the ballot scanning machines.

Jones previously confirmed the drives were found throughout the day following the election and no votes were lost.

Ramos explained she had already written the resolution prior to the information about the misplaced flash drives was released.  

"We have to get to the bottom of this," said Ramos.

Burnett and colleagues Councilman Zeke Cohen and Councilwoman Phylicia Porter co-sponsored the resolution.

"During the hearing, we'll explore these issues and any others residents write us about. We will try to understand why these errors happened and how to avoid the errors next time," read Burnett. 

WJZ requested an interview with Jones but he was unable to accommodate the inquiry due to meetings. A request was then made for a statement regarding the investigation. So far, WJZ has not received a response.

The resolution will now be sent to the Rules and Oversight Committee.