High Court Allows Timely Counting of Ballots

On Friday, Maryland’s highest court ruled in favor of a petition put forward by the Maryland State Board of Elections to enable pre-processing and counting of mail-in ballots for the November general elections. No results will be released until polls are closed, however.

Earlier this year, Governor Hogan vetoed legislation enabling processing of mail-in ballots before Election Day. The legislation was crafted to ensure that canvassing of mail-in ballots could begin before Election Day instead of the Thursday after the election as current law states.

In September, the State Board of Elections filed a successful petition seeking a judicial order to suspend the state law that prohibits the opening of any mail-in ballot envelope before the Wednesday after the election and requesting that the court permit local election boards to begin processing mail ballots on October 1st.  Friday’s ruling from the Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.

The petition has the support of Gov. Hogan as well as the unanimous support of the bi-partisan State Board of Elections, and is a crucial piece of policy to address the ever rising number of ballots being cast by mail.