'Elections officials and advocates have called it a nightmare.

[elleng]

Why is Gov. Larry Hogan pushing ahead with his election plan?

The warnings from election officials and voting rights advocates have been downright apocalyptic.

“It’s chaos,” said Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, upon hearing of Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision last week to hold a traditional election.

“This is pretty much a nightmare,” Baltimore Elections Director Armstead Jones told his board Thursday as he updated them on preparations for November’s election.

And Friday, Baltimore County’s Democratic County Executive, Johnny Olszewski Jr. asked Hogan to “revisit this misguided decision.”

”Follow CDC advice, and empower Marylanders to cast their ballots in a way that does not jeopardize public health or overextend local boards of elections,” he said.

Opposition to Hogan’s plan has grown steadily louder since the Republican governor called for the November election to be held primarily in person, with all voting precincts open as well as early voting locations.

Unlike the June primary, when voters across the state were mailed ballots as a precaution during the global COVID-19 outbreak, Hogan this time wants all voters to receive applications for absentee ballots. They will have to return the application to receive a ballot by mail, a move that voting rights advocates and top Democratic leaders have decried as an impediment to voting that could disenfranchise thousands of Marylanders.'>>>

https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-hogan-election-plan-opposition-20200718-eeolosycfrhzxhangzey25yt34-story.html?

[Firestorm49]

1. Hmmm. Sounds eerily like the idiot GOP in WI.

[Hoyt]

2. While I like voting to be easy, it can't be much easier than it is now in Maryland.

No one has to stand in line, etc. The only thing easier would be to mail everyone a ballot. But since it’s easy to request a ballot, even on-line, there’s not much excuse.

[elleng]

4. Seems problem HERE:

'Hogan this time wants all voters to receive applications for absentee ballots. They will have to return the application to receive a ballot by mail.'

'Unlike the June primary, when voters across the state were mailed ballots as a precaution during the global COVID-19 outbreak.'

Avoidable problem, imo.

[Hoyt]

6. Just not worth griping about, IMO. Sometimes it's best to just take the 30

seconds to request a ballot, than gripe about having to take a little effort. Just don’t think it helps us to throw a fit about something so trivial.

I know it’s avoidable, and the governor is a GOPer, but there are bigger battles to fight.

[elleng]

7. I agree,

saw it in the paper so thought would post.

'Local election directors also have been critical of the plan, saying they cannot possibly open the thousands of polling places needed to pull off a traditional election in the midst of the pandemic nor recruit the 25,000 workers needed to staff those polls.

Given the public outcry, some remain baffled as to how Hogan reached the decision in the first place. The State Board of Elections divided on the issue of the election’s format — Democrats favored mailing ballots to all voters while Republicans wanted to send absentee ballot applications — but neither faction considered the possibility of opening all of voting locations.'

[Hoyt]

8. We have something similar going on in my state. I suppose if folks don't

protest the little hassles, GOPers will keep pushing it.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Hogan needs to realize that all want safe voting, including members of his own party. They said

this too in Michigan when they voted earlier this year (I think it was Michigan). It cost the republicans that seat.

[regnaD kciN]

5. The irony...

...is that this might work to move a swing-state into the Trump column, but Maryland's sure to go for Biden, no matter how the vote is conducted.

[SWBTATTReg]

9. And another irony is that by their actions (the republicans to stifle voting by other safer means...

it'll cause their candidates across the board to lose, being that their voters (republicans) don't want to face the perils of the CV either.