Everyone has been wondering when we’ll have more information about the November 3 General Election. A couple of days ago, it turned out that Governor Larry Hogan had been wondering about that, too. He sent a letter to the State Board of Elections giving them two days to explain how they will carry out the orders he has given for conducting the election, many of which have raised criticisms suggesting that aspects of the governor’s plan will be impossible to carry out.
The central components of the Hogan plan include having all Maryland precincts open for in-person voting, instead of having only a limited number open, as with the primary election, with encouragement to vote by mail; sending out applications for voters to submit to request mail ballots, rather than simply sending ballots to all registered voters as was done for the primary; and all the usual opportunities for early voting. One explanation he wanted was why the applications for mail ballots had not already been sent out to registered voters.
In short, what in some quarters has been dubbed the “all of the above” approach to voting methods provides an abundance of choices for voters and maximizes access, but according to the state board and local governments, it does so at a prohibitive cost, with little likelihood of meeting staffing needs for election judges and a greater likelihood of placing election workers and voters – especially older ones – at risk of exposure to the coronavirus.
A number of counties, including Prince George’s, have announced that they would likely need to dramatically reduce, not expand, the number of in-person polling places due to an inability to recruit election workers.
Progress is being made, but for the time being everyone – perhaps including the governor – can keep wondering just what the 2020 election will look like.