Once upon a time, not long ago, the State of Maryland was scheduled to hold both its Democratic and Republican primary elections on Tuesday, April 28, as part of the process of determining who would be nominated by their respective parties to run in the presidential election on November 3. That was before the impact of the coronavirus was fully appreciated. Joining 15 other states and Puerto Rico, Governor Larry Hogan decided that discretion was the better part of valor and issued a proclamation resetting Maryland’s primary election day to Tuesday, June 2. The deadline for registering to vote prior to the primary elections was also extended to May 27. Not only has the question of who the party nominees will be pretty well sorted itself out, but Maryland voters will have an election unlike any they have known before. At Hogan’s order the State Board of Elections submitted a plan for safely running the primary elections. The governor approved the board’s plan on April 10. What follows below is the outline for the plan, but some details are still being worked out. The primary election will be conducted almost entirely by mail. All registered, eligible voters will be mailed a ballot for this election, which should arrive from early to mid-May. There is no need to request a ballot. It will be mailed to the address the Board of Elections has on file. If the voter wishes to have it mailed elsewhere, the standard absentee ballot request form, available on the Board of Elections website (elections.maryland.gov) can be used for this purpose. All mailed ballots will include a return envelope and prepaid postage. Voters who prefer to drop off their mail ballots, rather than returning them by mail, may do so at designated ballot drop-off locations from Thursday, May 21, through Tuesday, June 2. A list of drop-off locations will be available soon. In-person voting will be available on Election Day, June 2, for those who cannot vote by mail. No fewer than one and no more than four voting centers per county will be designated for this purpose. A list of voting centers will be available soon. Generally, the centers will be the sites of previously designated early voting locations. To reduce the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus, the State Board of Elections strongly recommends that voters who can vote by mail do so. Voted ballots must be postmarked on or before Tuesday, June 2. The location of drop-off spots and voting centers will be printed in this paper when they are identified.
