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Maryland鈥檚 top elections administrator should retire in the wake of glitches and mishaps surrounding Tuesday鈥檚 primary election, Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford (R) said Wednesday.
Late ballots, errors in results reporting and a slew of other issues have some officials fed up with longtime Maryland Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone. Rutherford, along with Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D), called for new elections leadership during a Wednesday Board of Public Works meeting.
鈥淚 hesitate to ask for anyone鈥檚 resignation, but I think it鈥檚 time for some retirements and new leadership,鈥� Franchot said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something going on over there that is just completely unacceptable.鈥�
Franchot said he鈥檇 also like to see the Baltimore City elections administrator, Armsted B.C. Jones Sr., gone.
Problems in Maryland鈥檚 first vote-by-mail primary began long before Tuesday, when a limited number of polling places opened. Ballots were delivered later than expected in parts of Baltimore City and Montgomery County, and many were deemed 鈥渦ndeliverable鈥� by the United States Postal Service.
Some Baltimore residents even got the wrong ballot, advocates at the elections watchdog group Common Cause Maryland said, and were told they had to vote in-person via a provisional ballot before their incorrect ballot was processed.
And in a Wednesday morning communication, state elections officials said some ballots with a 鈥渟mall proofing error鈥� were erroneously sent out to voters in Baltimore鈥檚 City Council District 1. The State Board of Elections blamed its printing vendor, SeaChange, for not correcting a portion of ballots mailed to voters. Officials were reportedly working with the local board of elections to 鈥渄uplicate affected vote-by-mail ballots onto correct ballots for scanning鈥�.
Officials noticed a problem with the District 1 tally late Tuesday night, as election returns were slowly coming in across the state. At one point, the count in the Democratic primary for City Council showed challenger Paris Bienert with 98% of the vote compared to 2% for Councilman Zeke Cohen.
State elections officials pulled the entire count for the city of Baltimore from the agency website around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. Results from the city elections began appearing again on the website around midday Wednesday, though there were no mailed-in results from District 1.
Rutherford said it鈥檚 time for 鈥渃hange, some new blood, some new thinking,鈥� in asking Lamone to step down.
Getting rid of elections administrators, however, isn鈥檛 as simple as asking them to retire. Even if the entire State Board of Elections voted to fire Lamone, the Maryland Senate would have to approve a replacement before she could be removed, per Maryland law.
There鈥檚 nothing new about officials wanting to remove Lamone. She has weathered ouster attempts more than once since her tenure as elections administrator began in 1997.
Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) planned to fire her via a carefully-selected State Board of Elections in 2005. The Baltimore Sun later reported, Lamone could have been forced out if four of the five board members voted to oust her.
Instead, the Maryland legislature assured Lamone鈥檚 longevity by changing the procedures for firing the state鈥檚 elections administrator. The law provided that the elections administrator could continue to serve even after a vote to remove her, until the Maryland Senate approved a replacement.
Ehrlich vetoed the legislation, but the Democrats who controlled the General Assembly overrode the veto.
In a statement, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) demanded answers from election officials, but stopped short of calling for Lamone鈥檚 retirement or resignation. He acknowledged the unprecedented nature of holding a primary during a global pandemic and unrest, but added that the situation 鈥渃annot be an excuse for avoidable problems.鈥�
鈥淲e will review in depth what exactly went wrong,鈥� Ferguson said in the statement. 鈥淲e will improve our election process for the future. And, most importantly, we will hold state and local agencies and officials accountable when we have the facts.鈥�
During a news conference late Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) also expressed his displeasure with the way the election was handled, calling the troubles 鈥渃ompletely unacceptable鈥� and saying the State Board of Elections showed 鈥渁 serious lack of leadership.鈥�
鈥淭he most basic responsibility of the SBE is ensuring that free and fair elections are conducted accurately and there were obviously significant failures,鈥� he said.
Hogan has called for Lamone to conduct a full report to be delivered to himself and the Board of Public Works, the Secretary of State, the General Assembly鈥檚 presiding officers and the public. Her deadline is July 3.
Additionally, the governor has asked the General Assembly to begin holding oversight hearings immediately to determine how to correct and prevent similar mishaps from occurring during the general election.
鈥淚 want to assure you that we鈥檙e going to take whatever actions are necessary to make sure that those who are responsible correct these problems in order to safeguard our democratic process and ensure that our November election is free of these failures and these issues,鈥� he said.
Hogan also said the legislature ought to consider changing the law to make it easier for top state officials to remove the elections administrator.
鈥淚f the legislature finds wrongdoing, failures, problems, then I would encourage them to go back and change the law so that the State Board of Elections can decide what to do about the administrator,鈥� he said.
Amy Cruice, director of the ACLU of Maryland鈥檚 Election Protection Campaign, also called on the State Board of Elections to move swiftly to study the problems in the primary and work to remedy the situation.
鈥淚n a time when the country is facing multiple crises, and when trust in public institutions is at all time lows, and in an environment when misinformation is not only widespread but being intentionally weaponized, our public institutions, and, most importantly, the institutions that manage our elections, have an absolute obligation to quickly and throughly explain not just what they are doing, but why they are doing it,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e deserve information so that voters and organizations can make recommendations and take action based on true and complete facts about what happened.
Even if the State Board of Elections voted to remove Lamone, and Ferguson intended on authorizing her replacement, the Senate is not schedule to meet again until after the November election.
Maryland State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D) echoed other officials鈥� worries about election problems ahead of the general election, but was hesitant to call for Lamone鈥檚 retirement. She worried that a leadership change could disrupt preparation for November.
Lamone blamed lies from vendors and a lack of time to prepare for the election woes. Studying the primary election鈥檚 mishaps, she said, will help her team get ready for November.
鈥淭he vendors simply didn鈥檛 tell the truth,鈥� Lamone said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how you overcome that.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to do what we always do,鈥� she added. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to look to see how we can do things better.鈥�
Hannah Gaskill contributed to this report.
