By CALEY FOX SHANNON
Capital News Service
SILVER SPRING, Md. – Early voting began Thursday in Maryland, with some voters lining up before sunrise to cast their votes when the polls opened at 7 a.m. for president, Senate, House, ballot initiatives and various local races.
In Montgomery County, early birds formed a line at dawn outside the Silver Spring Civic Building.
Campaign volunteers set up tables on the plaza and unpacked sheafs of sample ballots to hand out. Inside, election judges plugged in ballot scanners, opened boxes of pens and laid out “I Voted” stickers.
“It’s a festive time,” Alan Bowser of Silver Spring told Capital News Service. Bowser was first in line at 6 a.m., and said he’s held that honor in every cycle since early voting became an option in Maryland.
Early voting began in the state in 2010 after Marylanders overwhelmingly favored a 2008 ballot question empowering lawmakers to write early balloting into law. In the intervening years, the Maryland General Assembly has voted four times to expand the number of early voting sites.
State Board of Elections Deputy Administrator Katherine Berry told CNS that as of 2:30 p.m. Thursday, more than 90,000 voters had turned out to cast their ballots. That pacing is on par with early voting turnout in 2020, Berry said, but far higher than the 2024 primary.
Bowser, a precinct chair for the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, told CNS the voters he speaks with are feeling motivated to elect the two women of color running close races at the top of the ticket: Vice President Kamala Harris for president and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks for Senate.
Webb Smedley was out in the brisk morning sporting a Harris Walz cap in woodland camo, paired with an Alsobrooks t-shirt featuring the candidate’s portrait.
Smedley, who is retired, said that this is the first time he has volunteered for a campaign.
“I think that it’s the most important election of my lifetime, and I’ve voted since…for a long time,” he said.
Also on the Democratic ticket in Montgomery County is Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is running to keep his seat in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.
Raskin arrived at the polls himself just after 7 a.m., greeting supporters with hugs and shaking hands with officials from the local board of elections. The Hill projects Raskin has a 99% chance of beating out Republican opponent Cheryl Riley to stay in Congress.
Walking in the front door of the polling place, Raskin told CNS, “I can’t wait to vote for Kamala.”
Of the many campaign signs dotting the parkway in front of the Civic Building, there was only one for Donald Trump, an unsurprising reality in deeply blue Montgomery County.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t Republicans at the polls in Silver Spring.
Michael Fletcher, a Republican from Olney, was reprising his role as a poll watcher, a designated individual approved to observe election activities.
Fletcher told CNS that he became interested in being a poll watcher after the 2020 election, when, in his words, “there were so many allegations and innuendo and things like that. So I thought I’d get more involved and see how the process worked.”
Although Trump continues to repeat false claims of fraud in the 2020 election, a lie spread by FOX News and prominent Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Fletcher said that he hasn’t seen anything concerning at the polls in his county.
“I think the Board of Elections in Montgomery County does a really good job of training their judges,” Fletcher said. “But I also like to think that just my presence here maybe makes everybody get up a little higher on the step, you know, do a little bit better job.”
For Montgomery County Board of Elections Secretary Amie Hoeber, a Republican, it’s frustrating that so many within her party continue to cast doubt on the voting process. She told CNS, “I find it fair and reasonable, and object to the people who consider it a problem.”
Hoeber has already cast her ballot by mail and wants to reassure the public that mail-in voting is another option that is “completely secure.”
Montgomery County Board of Elections President David Naimon said many voters like to wait until the last minute, but he urged the public to resist the “real human tendency to procrastinate.”
Polling places specially designated as early voting centers in Maryland are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Thursday October 31. More information about early voting can be found on the State Board of Elections website.
