On a brisk Saturday morning in October, amid the historic sites and small businesses of Gettysburg, Penn., 40 people were gathered in a small office space.

All were from Maryland, but these weren’t tourists seeking Civil War tales or you-pick apple orchards. They were politically active voters who wanted to help tilt the election in perhaps the most important swing state of all, where polls show a toss-up in the presidential race.

Maryland almost always lives up to its deep-blue reputation – Joe Biden bested Donald Trump here by more than 33 percentage points. So volunteers who want to make a difference often take the short drive north over the Mason-Dixon line to go door to door or work phone banks. 

Among those inside the Adams County Democratic Party office were Rob and Meredith Gramlich. The Bethesda couple first campaigned for President Obama more than a decade ago. They chose to travel to Pennsylvania in 2024 rather than volunteer for Democratic candidate Angela Alsobrooks in the Maryland Senate Race.

“It’s tough to have any influence in Maryland,’’ said Rob Gramlich, 55, president of an energy consulting firm. For the Gramlichs, it is more important to focus on the “bigger picture,” meaning the presidential race and swing state voters.

Volunteers like the Gramlichs are essential to produce a high-energy day of canvassing, said Casey Deck, lead organizer for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in Adams County.

“Last weekend, we reached 19,000 doors. This weekend, we’re aiming for 28,000,” he said, a number that would only be possible with out-of-state help.

Refining the script

On this Saturday, Deck told the volunteers they would be focusing on Democrat, independent, and some third-party voters.

“There are very few Republicans that will swing blue,” Deck said, explained why they avoid the homes of registered Republicans.

With route assignments in hand, the volunteers traveled into town. Each group followed a concise, three-question script: “Are you aware of the election? Do you have a plan to vote? And are you aware of the down-ballot Democratic candidates?”

Their routes took them to manicured neighborhoods near Gettysburg College, where they encountered multiple Harris-Walz signs on lawns along streets like West Broadway and West Lincoln Ave—a strong show of local support.

As they moved from house to house, the Gramlichs relied on an app created for canvassers to track their progress, marking each interaction down. The first task involved knocking on 23 doors, home to 39 potential voters.

“It’s about chunking the talking points,” said Meredith Gramlich, 56, who works at the University of Maryland College of Education. She explained her plan to keep the script conversational, not robotic, while covering key policy areas in the Harris-Walz campaign.

The Gramlichs left literature behind at homes where no one answered. They also received two confirmations that mailed-in ballots were submitted with only Democrats names checked, and they secured four confirmations of voters planning to vote on Election Day.

The same afternoon, Daniel Corbett, a Silver Spring retiree, was walking in Hanover, a working-class town located about 30 minutes outside of Gettysburg with a notable abundance of ‘Steelworkers for Harris’ signs in yards.

‘Out of my comfort zone’

The Hanover canvassing office was an empty warehouse, subleased for the election season. It was full of life, buzzing with volunteers from New Jersey as well as Pennsylvania residents, and those volunteers from Maryland. Corbett dressed for the occasion, sporting a new “White Dudes for Harris” hat.

Corbett’s day included four ‘lit drops’, three confirmations of mail-in ballots already cast, and two voters planning to vote on Election Day.

One interaction stuck out: Corbett approached a man in his driveway while the man was working on his boat. The man told Corbett he had already voted for Trump.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Corbett told the man, who quickly shot back, “No, I would be sorry for her,” referring to the Kamala Harris hat Corbett was wearing.

Still, Corbett’s resolve wasn’t shaken. He saw canvassing as a personal mission, one made more poignant by his wife’s reaction to the Trump administration.

“She felt disregarded,” he confided, explaining that the 2016 results affected them in ways they hadn’t anticipated.

As the day wore on, one of the most meaningful conversations came from an unexpected source. Bonnie Reese, a lifelong steelworker, opened up to Corbett during his visit. Reese, who had already made up her mind to vote for Harris-Walz, shared her growing frustration with the political divide in her own family.

“I’ve always respected Republicans,” she began, “But now, it’s a shame that I have family members who’ll no longer talk to me.”

Still, she is optimistic for the future.

“There’s a ladder to climb, and this is the best bet,” she said, referring to the Harris-Walz ticket.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have made multiple visits to Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the campaign.

Deck, the Democratic campaign coordinator for Adams County, said it was important for his party to pull its weight in the race for the White House, even if it meant bringing in volunteers from across state lines.

“I’m out of my comfort zone, but this is necessary for me to do,” Corbett acknowledged, adding that the 2016 election had left him with deep regrets. “After Hillary lost, I was depressed. I felt like I didn’t do enough to impact the campaign.”

By ADAM HUDACEK

Capital News Service

There’s a little-known conservative power player in the nation’s school board elections, and it has endorsed more candidates in Maryland than in any other state. 

The 1776 Project PAC, which says on its website that it supports “reform-minded conservatives who oppose political indoctrination and believe in parental rights,” has endorsed 19 Maryland school board candidates in nine of the state’s 24 school districts. The endorsements come as the state’s Democratic Party announces strategic targeting of 24 “extreme” conservative candidates.

This isn’t the 1776 Project PAC’s first foray into Maryland’s election. In 2022, the political action committee campaigned for at least three Maryland school board candidates, but not without incident. 

A year ago, the state prosecutor and the Maryland State Board of Elections fined the PAC more than $20,000 for its campaign practices during the 2022 school board elections. The fine stems from what the 1776 Project PAC did in November 2022, when it sent 13,879 text messages to Carroll County voters urging them to vote for certain candidates.

“Stop indoctrination in our schools, early voting has started [sic] vote for the pro-parent ticket for school board Tara Battaglia, James Miller and Steve Whisler,” one message read. Battaglia and Whisler won election to the school board.

In Maryland, the law requires campaign messages sent on behalf of candidates to record who paid for the information to be distributed, regardless of whether it is a yard sign, a pamphlet or a digital advertisement. The 1776 Project PAC text in 2022 lacked such a provision and therefore deserved to be sanctioned, said Maryland State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard in announcing the fine a year ago.

“Being able to identify the source of information for campaign material is essential to honesty and transparency in our electoral process,” Howard said . 

This year, the 1776 Project PAC has spent a total of $75,409.58 on 13 Maryland school board candidates across Cecil, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Calvert, Somerset and St. Mary’s counties. Other candidates endorsed by the group did not receive direct funding as of the latest campaign finance filing deadline.

The political action committee is the brainchild of former political consultant and journalist Ryan James Girdusky, who founded the organization in 2021. A letter from Girdusky on the PAC’s website explains that he was spurred to start the 1776 Project when his godson’s teacher read his class two books about police brutality and white privilege. 

“Progressive activists within our public education system were using their positions to indoctrinate children,” Girdusky wrote in the letter. 

“I created the 1776 Project to change public education by reforming school boards and electing reform-minded conservatives who wanted to improve public education in this country, he added.

The Maryland Democratic Party calls the 1776 Project PAC a “radical ring-wing group”, alongside the conservative parental rights organization Moms For Liberty, which successfully banned 21 books from public school libraries in Carroll County earlier this year. The involvement of the two organizations has prompted the state Democratic Party to invest directly in Maryland’s school board races, a move the party referred to as “unprecedented.” 

“The Maryland Democratic Party is committed to defending our students from the dangerous fringe agenda that extremist candidates and the far-right groups are hoping to bring to our state,” said Ken Ulman, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, in a press release. “We won’t allow radical activists dedicated to banning books and discriminating against students to take over our schools.”

In its X account bio, the 1776 Project PAC boasts that it has helped elect over 200 “un-woke,” or conservative, school board members since its founding. According to its website, the Project 1776 PAC has focused its endorsements on four states – Maryland, Tennessee, Florida and Arizona – after its successes in three Wisconsin races in April.

To date, the organization has endorsed six candidates in Tennessee, 15 in Florida and 17 in Arizona this election cycle.

The 1776 Project PAC did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the specifics of its policy proposals on school library regulation or preferred pronoun use in public schools. However, some of the candidates it endorsed – such as Elena Brewer of St. Mary’s County – did.

“My main priority is to promote excellence in education and not indoctrination,” Brewer said in response to a Local News Network questionnaire. “Our public schools should in no way become avenues for various special interest groups to promote their political agenda, such as radical gender theory, which attacks the children’s God-given identity and robs them of their innocence. I intend to promote age-appropriate teaching materials, stop the sexualization of children, and promote learning, and the building of character.”

On the 1776 Project PAC website, the organization writes that “biological sex is real and must be taken into account in schools” and that so-called “gender ideology” has been popularized among youth in recent years, something the 1776 Project PAC views as a threat against young girls.

On the topic of book bans, Girdusky stated  in a post on his X account that “the 1776 Project PAC does not take a position on which books are offered in school libraries.” He listed the organization’s priorities as fiscal transparency, improving academic standards, promoting classic education and patriotism, safe classrooms and parental involvement in public schools.

Specifically, the 1776 Project PAC opposes critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, stating on its website that they “subordinate the liberal arts to indoctrination.” 

That’s the kind of conservative agenda that some candidates want to stop.

“In recent years, I have become increasingly concerned with the politicization of public education,” Amanda Jozkowski, a Carroll County school board candidate who lost in 2022 and who is running again this year, said in response to the LNN questionnaire. “Decisions that impact our children should be driven by data, best practices and the needs of our students and educators – not by partisan agendas. I want to eliminate division and distraction and refocus the board’s efforts on what matters most: ensuring that every student has access to a high-quality education that prepares them for life after graduation, whether that means college, career or other pursuits.”

Local News Network reporter Tolu Talabi contributed to this report.

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.

According to the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR), African immigrants represent 17% of the state’s immigrant population. Often overlooked, this community of about 900,000 people has begun organizing and demanding more political representation. In its research, the IIR found that Maryland has the fourth highest population of African immigrants. California, New York and Texas have higher populations according to migration policy experts.

At a recent fundraiser held in a Bowie mansion, the fusion of African and American cultures was on full display. Afrobeat music filled the air as guests enjoyed a mix of traditional American fare and Nigerian cuisine such as plantains and jollof rice. “I’m blending the two cultures in a pretty and tasty way,” said Chef Michel Odukoya as he garnished the food.

Read more at WYPR.

Maryland voters who checked the ‘uncommitted’ box on their Democratic primary ballots this spring are grappling with how to cast their presidential vote in November.

Just under one in ten Marylanders joined the nationwide movement to opt out of voting for then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden in May to demand more action against the war in Gaza. In Baltimore City, 14% of voters did the same.

But the state advocacy group Listen to Maryland isn’t backing a presidential candidate ahead of the November election. And neither is the National Uncommitted Movement, who instead urged supporters to vote “anti-Trump up and down the ballot” in a September statement.

That’s left uncommitted voters divided over how to cast their votes this fall. Three former volunteers for Listen to Maryland all have different plans — but none of them are checking the box for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

Read more (and listen) at WYPR.

By SHAUN CHORNOBROFF

Capital News Service

WASHINGTON – Despite having “Republican” under his name on Maryland’s ballots, former Gov. Larry Hogan has been running for the U.S. Senate on the notion that he’s more of an independent, someone who can work on either side of the political aisle. 

That messaging hasn’t stopped Hogan’s campaign from receiving significant campaign support from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, as well as two Republican senators vying to replace him as the next GOP Senate leader: John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota. 

Hogan, who was recruited to run in the election by McConnell, is pitted against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in what is likely to be one of the country’s most pivotal elections. The Maryland seat is being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.

The Hogan campaign declined to respond to questions by phone and email about the contributions.

Hogan’s campaign has received more than $235,000, including a $75,000 contribution on Sept. 25, from the Cornyn Victory Committee, according to Federal Election Committee reports filed on Tuesday. 

Politico reported that Thune’s super PAC, New Heights Action, has given $1 million to PACs to help Hogan’s campaign.  

New Heights Action has given $750,000 to Maryland’s Future, a super PAC supporting Hogan, according to the FEC filings. 

A McConnell-linked super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, gave $2 million to Maryland’s Future in July. 

Maryland’s Future has been behind a wave of advertising engulfing the state and had $16 million left to spend as of Sept. 30. 

At the end of September, Axios reported that WinSenate, a Democratic PAC linked to Chuck Schumer, was launching $1.1 million worth of ads for Alsobrooks over the first two weeks of this month.

With the aid of four independent senators who caucus with them, Democrats hold a two-seat advantage in the Senate. Hogan swinging a seat in Maryland, a deeply Democratic state, would represent a major political coup for the Republicans.  

“I think there’s always one race that people aren’t paying attention to that we end up picking up. I think that could be Maryland this time,” Cornyn said in a Sept. 24 conversation with Capital News Service. 

Both Cornyn and Thune have flexed their well-established fundraising muscles as they, along with Rick Scott, R-Florida, seek to succeed McConnell, who is relinquishing his leadership post at the end of the year.

On Sept. 24, Cornyn sent out a letter to donors detailing that he has raised more than $400 million since he joined the Senate in 2002.

The Cornyn Victory Committee has raised nearly $16 million in this election cycle, according to Open Secrets. The money has been spread out among a number of candidates, with Hogan being near the middle of the group in terms of total donations from the Texan’s PAC. 

The Hill reported last month that Thune announced at a political strategy meeting that he would transfer $4 million from his personal campaign to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in an effort to chip away at the large fundraising advantage held by Democrats. The donation was the largest ever by a Senate Republican, doubling the previous record, set by Thune in 2016.

The Alsobrooks campaign has held a fundraising advantage over Hogan’s campaign in recent months. 

Alsobrooks’ principal campaign committee raised more than $13.4 million in the last cycle from July 1 through Sept. 30, significantly more than Hogan, whose campaign committee raised $3.3 million in the same period, according to FEC filings.

Both Hogan and Alsobrooks have joint fundraising arrangements with party committees that provide their campaigns with cash and raise money for the parties.
The Alsobrooks Victory Fund, created by her campaign and the Democratic State Central Committee of Maryland, raised nearly $3.8 million during the reporting period. Similarly, the Hogan Victory Fund, set up between his campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign, raised $5.4 million. 

Alsobrooks’ principal campaign committee had almost $3.4 million in cash on hand at the end of last month, while Hogan’s principal committee reported nearly $1.6 million in cash on hand.

Hogan is Maryland’s first two-term Republican governor in over 60 years and remains fairly popular. 

A University of Maryland Baltimore poll released on Oct. 9 said 53% of likely Maryland voters had a favorable opinion of Hogan, compared to 49% for Alsobrooks.

However, the poll gave Alsobrooks a nine-point lead in a race that was neck-and-neck only a month ago. 

Some analysts believe a major reason for Alsobrooks’ advantage could be Hogan’s party allegiance: the former governor is sharing the ticket with former President Donald Trump. Even though Trump endorsed him, Hogan is not returning the favor, saying he will not vote for the GOP standard-bearer. 

Hogan’s party ties were a major focus in his Oct. 10 debate with Alsobrooks, with the Prince George’s county executive repeatedly warning of the dangers of a Republican-controlled Senate. 

More than 30% of those surveyed in the UMBC poll cited either support for Democratic control of the Senate or reproductive rights as their reason for voting for Alsobrooks.

“We are facing an election where the future of our country and our freedoms are at stake,” Alsobrooks said during the debate. “The Republican Party has declared war on women’s reproductive freedoms, we recognize that this party of chaos and division led by Donald Trump can not lead this country and also has severe consequences for Marylanders.” 

Throughout the debate, Hogan characterized himself as someone who could overcome partisan politics. 

“I think what we need desperately in Washington are people that are willing, that have the courage to put country over party and to put people over politics, and to stand up to the leaders of their party,” Hogan said. “I don’t think there’s anyone in America who has done that more than me.”

The Baltimore City Council has 14 members, each representing a geographic district, with one city council president elected at-large. Ballot Question H asks voters if they think the number of members should be eight.

The Baltimore City Council costs taxpayers about $10.5 million per year out of the city’s $3.4 billion budget. That supports a staff of about 80 people; including people who answer phones, attend community meetings, research and write legislation. Then of course there’s the council people themselves.

Read more (and listen) at WYPR.

By JACK BOWMAN

Capital News Service

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – The issue of Republican Senate hopeful Larry Hogan’s party allegiance took center stage in the first, and perhaps only, debate with Democratic opponent Angela Alsobrooks on Thursday. 

As he has throughout his campaign, Hogan, who moderator Chuck Todd mentioned was recruited to run by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, spent much of the debate distancing himself from the GOP on several issues and attempting to establish himself as an independent. 

“You’re going to hear nothing but red versus blue,” Hogan, the former Maryland governor, said early in the debate, which will be televised on Maryland Public Television, WBAL in Baltimore and WRC in Washington Thursday at 7 p.m. “I care a lot more about the red, white and blue.” 

Hogan also pointedly rejected the premise of being a party-line Republican, saying that he has a “proven track record” of standing up to former President Donald Trump, McConnell and the Republican Party. He also said that the country needs more “mavericks” in the Senate. 

Alsobrooks, for her part, took aim at those claims. Specifically, she asserted that Hogan’s personal stance on abortion, and his promises to support the codification of Roe v. Wade, wouldn’t matter if the Republicans gain control of the Senate. 

“I believe the governor when he said that he would like to vote with Roe,” said Alsobrooks, currently Prince George’s County executive. “But, you know what? The fact is, if the Republicans have a majority in the Senate, there will be no vote on Roe.”

Foreign policy

The through line of partisanship continued as the debate shifted to foreign policy and specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

When questioned about her stance on the conflict, Alsbrooks echoed the position held by many national-level Democrats, emphasizing both her support for Israel and her concerns surrounding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for a two-state solution. 

“I believe in this moment, we have an obligation to make sure that we’re getting those hostages home to their families,” Alsobrooks said, referring to hostages taken by Hamas during an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, “and that we get to a ceasefire, making sure that…we get aid into Gaza for the Palestinians who are suffering.”

Hogan used his time also expressing unequivocal support for Israel, a view he has repeated throughout the campaign. He noted he did not differ with the retiring Democrat whose seat he and Alsobrooks are campaigning for.

“I’m going to be a strong supporter of Israel, as I always have been,” Hogan said, “and I’m going to be more like a champion for Israel, like Ben Cardin.”

The Supreme Court

As the debate shifted to the topic of the Supreme Court, Alsobrooks pushed for reform of the nation’s highest court, referencing term limits or expansion of the number of justices. 

“I think we’re going to have to do something to reform the Supreme Court,” Alsobrooks said. “Again, looking at the decisions they’ve made, everything from overturning Roe, I think there are ethical problems with the Supreme Court.” 

Alsobrooks went on to say, “this is another place where me and Mr. Hogan disagree.” 

Hogan did draw a contrast between his position and that of his opponent, saying that the pushes for reform are politically motivated. 

“I think if there’s one thing that we should not be politicizing, it’s the Supreme Court,” Hogan said, “and yet it has been politicized by both sides. And I think trying to change the rules to jam things through on a party line vote is not the right way to go about it.”

Abortion

As it has been throughout the campaign, abortion was a major issue in the debate. 

One difference between the two candidates was their strategies for passing legislation to codify Roe v. Wade, the right to an abortion. 

Alsobrooks advocated abolishing the filibuster, a Senate procedure that allows debate on a measure to continue until 60 senators vote to stop it. Many critics of the Senate, including some senators, consider the filibuster an impediment to passing bills that have the support of a majority of lawmakers. 

“We’ve seen the filibuster has been used in ways that have been very destructive, and it really has not been in the interest of the people,” Alsobrooks said.

Hogan, in response, cited bipartisanship in his opposition to removing the filibuster. 

“I like the idea of continuing to have to find people across the aisle, find that bipartisan compromise,” Hogan said. 

He also compared Alsobrooks’ stance to that of Trump, saying that both of them want to change “long standing rules that require bipartisan cooperation.”

Gun control and crime

Both candidates, in their general comments on gun control, said they supported “common sense gun legislation.” 

Hogan, for his part, said he would support a “bipartisan, commonsense assault weapons ban.” 

He also accused Alsobrooks of pulling safety officers out of schools, a point that Alsobrooks disputed. 

Alsobrooks said that she would be in favor of “eliminating assault weapons” and “removing ghost guns from our streets.” 

She also said the former governor “in fact, vetoed legislation that would have created a waiting period for long guns and outright refused to sign the ban on those guns.”

On the issue of crime, Hogan trumpeted his “refund the police initiative,” while saying that Prince George’s County has cut its police force under Alsobrooks’ leadership. Hogan charged that “crime is out of control” in the county. 

Alsobrooks insisted otherwise, saying that she “oversaw a 50% lowering in crime.” 

“I not only support law enforcement, I was law enforcement,” Alsobrooks said. 

Personal voting 

In perhaps her most direct attack on Hogan’s embrace of bipartisanship, Alsobrooks took aim at Hogan’s write-in vote for Ronald Reagan in the 2020 election and his refusal to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 election despite the former governor’s opposition to Trump. 

“For a person who says he could see a bipartisan way forward,” Alsobrooks said, “but was unable to do the most bipartisan thing ever in an election where he says he despises (Trump), but cannot bring himself to even vote for Vice President Harris … will have forfeited the chance to vote in three different elections rather than stand up, do the right thing, choose a tough vote and vote for a Democrat.” 

Hogan explained his reasoning: “I’ve never voted for someone I didn’t believe in.” 

He went on to say, “that’s why we have the ability to write-in and take whatever decision you make.”

By TAYLOR NICHOLS
Capital News Service

The months since Kamala Harris announced her candidacy have been filled with viral social media moments. Since her campaign began in July, it was as if a spigot turned on, and the internet was awash in memes and TikTok videos about her, often created by and for young people.

But is that enthusiasm translating to more engagement on the ground from young voters?

That spike, in part, was due to a swell of voters under 30. Three of the best weeks for young voter registration in Maryland this year happened post-Kamala – nearly 11,000 voters under 30 registered in the weeks after her July 21 announcement.

Maryland voter registration data shows July, the month Harris announced her campaign, was the strongest month for voter registration this year, according to an analysis by Capital News Service.

The biggest jump in young voter registrations was seen in Baltimore City, with a 63 percent increase in registrations for people under 30 in the weeks after Biden dropped out.

Most counties saw a roughly 20-25 percent increase in registrations in the month after Harris announced her candidacy. Montgomery County saw a 40 percent jump and Worcester County saw a 32 percent increase.

“Younger people are excited about having a new candidate in Kamala Harris,” said Montgomery County resident Sean Quiroga, 22, who recently graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s in government and politics. “We need to have a new voice.”

Quiroga said that he initially was nervous about the chaos it could cause if Biden dropped out. Now, he’s reassured by the support she’s garnered.

“She’s able to get out the message in a way that Joe Biden, I think, had difficulty doing,” he said.

Voter registrations began to trend upwards after a lull in May, just after the deadline for registering to vote in this year’s primary election.

Registrations for voters from every age group increased in July, including for future voters under 18 years old who are able to pre-register in the state of Maryland, which many young people do when they get their driver’s license.

Young Democrats of Maryland, and local chapters of the organization throughout the state, say they’re seeing a swell of energy from young voters looking to get involved after the Harris campaign announced her candidacy.

When the election was between President Biden and former President Trump, it was hard to drum up enthusiasm for more of the status quo, Frederick County Young Democrats President Violet Williams said. 

But having a younger woman of color – Harris is 59 years old, Black and Indian – running a historic campaign has brought new energy to the election, especially for young women, Williams said.

“We’ve been seeing a trend where a lot of young people feel like they’re not being represented, they’re not being talked to, and they’re not having the same say that they feel that older voters are having,” Williams said.

Frederick County, which was won by Biden in 2020 after decades of voting Republican, saw a 23 percent increase in registrations for voters under 30 in the four weeks following Harris’ July 21 announcement. 

Rachel Janfaza, a journalist who covers young voters and politics on her website The Up and Up, agrees. She said young voters are excited to see someone who looks and sounds more like them running for president.

“The history of what her candidacy represents is really important, and I think a lot of young people are feeling excited by that,” Janfaza said. “She represents a new generation of leadership.”

Janfaza said that for many young adults, who have really only seen the last two elections play out, it’s the first time they feel they can vote for a candidate they’re excited about.

While the Harris campaign has galvanized young voters to get involved, it may take more than a Taylor Swift endorsement to sway young voters to go for Harris. Janfaza said young adults are still waiting to hear what her policies are and how they will differ from Biden’s.

“Young people are really looking for values over virality,” Janfaza said. “They want to hear her speak about the issues that matter to them.”

Abortion, gun violence and climate change are three hot button issues for young voters, but research from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, at Tufts University, shows the top issue for young people is the economy.

Inflation, the cost of living and jobs that pay a living wage are all primary concerns for young voters, said CIRCLE researcher Ruby Belle Booth.

“I think that a lot of young people are ready to see things get done and they want a plan that's going to show success and clear achievements on the issues that matter to them, because they’ve seen so many things get held back by hyper partisanship,” Booth said. “Young people are just ready for action on these things.”

Emily Condon helped with reporting for this story.

By: Dylan Jaffe, Jackson Hawkins and Viviane Stackhouse

Capital News Service

As Maryland voters get ready to head to the polls on Nov. 5, Capital News Service is here to provide answers about how, when and where to vote.

When is the deadline to register to vote in Maryland?

Oct. 15 is the deadline to register to vote, update registration or change party affiliation by mail or online before the general election. Maryland residents can also register to vote in person at the polls when you vote.

Can I register to vote on election day?

Yes. In Maryland, you can register to vote during early voting or on election day at the polls.

When does early voting begin in Maryland?

Early voting begins Oct. 24 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and ends Oct. 31. Residents can vote in any early voting center in the county where they live. Maryland has 97 early voting centers and many counties have multiple early voting locations. You can find more information about early voting centers here.

What should I bring if I am voting in person? What should I not bring?

You can bring any printed material including your marked specimen ballot to assist you in voting. If you are a first time voter, you may be asked to show a form of identification before voting. You can show an election judge one of the following forms of ID:
– A valid Maryland driver’s license, U.S passport, or any other state or federal government- issued ID such as an MVA ID card or a student, employee or military ID card.
– A copy of a current government document that shows your name and address such as a utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck that is dated within 3 months of the election.

If you choose to wear clothing, buttons or stickers with political messages, you must leave the early voting center or polling place immediately after voting. Additionally, using your cell phone, pager, camera, and computer equipment is not allowed at these locations.

When can I vote?

Early voting for Maryland residents begins Oct. 24 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and ends Oct. 31.

If you want to receive your ballot by mail or fax, your request must be received by Tuesday, Oct. 29. If you want your ballot via email, you have until November 1 to request it. Mail-in ballots must be turned in by Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. either by mail, to an approved voter drop box near you or by hand-delivering it to the board of elections.

If you are not participating in early or mail-in voting, you may vote in-person on the general election day, Nov. 5 from 7 a.m to 8 p.m.

Where can I vote in person?

Every voter in Maryland has an assigned voting location where they can vote on election day. Click here to look up your voting location.

If you are participating in early voting, you can vote in-person at one of your county’s early voting centers. You can find more information about early voting centers here.

What is the accessibility for voters with disabilities?

There are numerous ways for voters with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to cast their vote. Check out the resources here if you or someone you know many need assistance.

How do I vote by mail?

Once you have registered to vote, anyone may choose to vote by using a mail-in ballot. To request a mail-in ballot, you may complete this online form. You can also complete this form and return it to your local board of elections by mail, fax or email. Oct. 29 is the last day to request a mail-in ballot to be delivered by mail or fax, while Nov. 1 at 11:59 p.m. is the last day to request a mail-in ballot by email. Mail-in ballots must be turned in by Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. either by mail, to an an approved voter drop box near you or by hand-delivering it to the board of elections.

How do I register to vote online?

To register to vote online, you must use Maryland’s Online Voter Registration System (OLVR). This website will walk you through how to register.

Am I voting for my representative in Congress this election?

Yes, all eight congressional districts in the state of Maryland will be voting for a congressional representative in this election. Look here to find out your district and congressional candidates. 

Who is running in the Maryland Senate race?

The Democratic candidate is Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Republican candidate is former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and the Libertarian candidate is Mike Scott. Follow the Capital News Service coverage to learn more and stay up to date.

What will my ballot look like?

Each county has a different ballot. This is due to local elections and varying open seats/candidates. The Senate race is state-wide, so it will appear on every ballot, as well as Question 1 regarding abortion rights. Every ballot in Maryland will include a vote for House representatives, but candidates will be different depending on your congressional district. Three Maryland Supreme Court justices and six intermediate appellate court judges are up for retention election. Several counties will be holding school board elections and Baltimore’s ballot will include municipal government elections for mayor, comptroller, city council and circuit court judges. You can download a sample of your county’s ballot here: https://elections.maryland.gov/elections/2024/index.html#gballots 

What is Question 1? Will there be other voter referendums on the ballot?

Question 1 asks voters to vote “yes” or “no” to the Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment, which would establish reproductive freedom as a constitutional right in the state of Maryland. Question 1 is a legislatively referred constitutional amendment, which means the Maryland Senate and Maryland House of Representatives have voted to put this question on the ballot. There will be no other voter referendums on your ballot.

What are issues that voters are prioritizing in their decision?

According to the Pew Research Center, the economy, health care, Supreme Court appointments, foreign policy, violent crimes, immigration, gun policy, abortion, racial and ethnic inequality, and climate change are among the most important issues for voters this year. The majority of voters in this study said that at least five of those issues are “very important” to their vote. The economy is the most important issue among all registered voters. Check out the Pew study for more information.

Are there school board elections this year?

Yes, in many counties voters will be electing new representatives to the Board of Education. Next month, the Local News Network will be releasing a comprehensive voter guide for Board of Elections candidates.

Where can I find more information about local races?

For information regarding local elections, check out the Maryland Board of Elections website. Also, stay tuned for more content from Capital News Service and follow us on social media.

By: Marissa Yelenik

Capital News Service

ANNAPOLIS – As Maryland questions whether reproductive rights should appear in the state constitution, advocates for and against the referendum work to sway voters.

The referendum will appear as Question 1 on the 2024 ballot asking voters to decide whether a right to reproductive freedom should be constitutionally guaranteed in the state of Maryland.

Those in support of the referendum say it would more permanently enshrine protections for reproductive freedom in Maryland. Current protections are under state law, which can change by action of the state legislature.

“Maryland already has laws protecting abortion, but we’ve already seen across the nation just how quickly those protections can get ripped away,” said Megan Outten, a board member for Reproductive Justice Maryland. “Statutes can easily be overturned, but giving Marylanders this constitutional amendment is going to provide us with lasting security.”

But the sensitive topic has also invited a plethora of criticism, with those opposing it claiming that this amendment would cut out their voices entirely.

“There’s more than just this blue or red conversation on abortion,” said Jonathan Alexandre, legislative counsel for the Maryland Family Institute. “Individuals should have the opportunity to continue to work through their legislature on these issues. Something like Question 1 cuts out the conversation altogether.”

Across the country, there has been an unprecedented wave of abortion-related legislation since the 2022 ruling in Dobbs. v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which determined there is no U.S. constitutional right to abortion. Ten other states have placed abortion-related constitutional amendments on their 2024 ballots.

Maryland lawmakers began working on state constitutional protection for abortion and reproductive rights over a year ago. In 2023, the Maryland General Assembly voted to place the referendum on the 2024 ballot, approving it by large majorities. According to a 2014 Pew Research study, 64% of Maryland adults think abortion should be legal in most cases. 

The ballot question says that “every person, as a central component of an individual’s rights to liberty and equality, has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.” 

It also says the state “may not, directly or indirectly, deny, burden, or abridge the right unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”

Opponents of the referendum claim that the language is too vague for voters to understand how it would work in practice.

“I think it’s short-sighted [for] the legislature to put such broad language in and then have people go to the polls and decide something that isn’t clear,” said Alexandre.

Alexandre expressed worry about the expansion of the term “reproductive freedom,” arguing that the unclear terminology will be used to expand the implied protections to gender-affirming care of minors.

“There’s no age limits to this, so it allows minors … to not only procure abortions and participate in that but also reproductive freedom has been stretched to almost include gender identity surgeries and the physical reconstruction of minors,” Alexandre said.

Others believe the amendment will not protect individual rights, but rather act as a barrier to putting additional safety regulations in place.

“Maryland already has extraordinarily permissive access to abortion in the state already, that doesn’t change whether this amendment passes or not,” said Jenny Kraska, executive director of Maryland Catholic Conference. “If it passes, it disallows the ability to ever put safeguards [or] regulations in place that may protect women and children”

But supporters of the referendum claim that voters do not have to worry about safeguards or regulations, as Maryland already has medical malpractice laws to protect individuals from subpar, negligent or outright harmful care.

“It doesn’t mean just because we put this in place that somehow that’s going to change anything that’s existing,” said State Sen. Dawn Gile, D-Anne Arundel County. “We already have in place certain requirements for healthcare, for parental consent.”

Under current law, the parents or guardians of a minor must be notified before a minor has an abortion but their consent is not required. Parental notification can be subverted in certain circumstances at the doctor’s discretion, including concerns that the information may lead to abuse of the minor, belief that the minor is mature and able to give their own informed consent, or belief that notification would not be in the minor’s best interest.

Gile pushed back on criticism of the referendum’s language, emphasizing that constitutional amendments are always broad, providing a standard for future laws rather than imposing restrictions or regulations themselves. The statutes and regulations that are passed, she said, serve to specify what will or will not be allowed.

“When [the founders] were first writing our United States Constitution, they couldn’t grasp or understand all those types of things that we would develop here in the future,” Sen. Gile said. “They have to be broadly written.”

Gile wants to make sure that Maryland maintains access to reproductive care, regardless of whether laws change in the future.

“I want to guarantee that here in Maryland we recognize the right to reproductive freedom, that we recognize the right to make healthcare decisions for our own bodies,” said Gile.

Supporters and opponents are each working with other groups and holding rallies to educate voters on what this referendum would mean for Maryland before they cast their ballots on Nov. 5.

By CALEY FOX SHANNON

Capital News Service

WASHINGTON – The Maryland State Board of Elections completed the installation Wednesday of 286 ballot drop boxes across the state for the general election.

Marylanders can use any drop box to cast their mail-in ballots, which may arrive in homes as early as next week.

“What you see now is a huge shift towards mail-in voting,” Maryland’s State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis told Capital News Service.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant expansion of mail-in voting in Maryland. During lockdown, the state sent all eligible voters mail-in ballots for the 2020 primary election. In that election, 97 percent of ballots were cast by mail.

Although the share of ballots cast by mail diminished as voters returned to the polls in 2022 and the 2024 primary, mail-in voting remains far more popular than it was before the pandemic. And according to DeMarinis, it’s here to stay.

“It looks like, from those past three statewide elections, post-COVID, that it’s something that Marylanders have liked and are going to use,” DeMarinis said, referring to the 2022 primary and general elections as well as this year’s primary. “And I think they see that mail-in voting offers flexibility to a lot of people. They get to choose when they want to vote.”

Marylanders can mark the calendar for upcoming deadlines to vote by mail in the general election.

Monday, Sept. 23: Ballots begin to arrive in the mail for permanent mail-in voters

Maryland provides the option for all voters who request a mail-in ballot to voluntarily join a permanent mail-in ballot list. 

Those who have opted in to the permanent mail-in ballot list can expect to see ballots arriving in the mail as early as Monday. Ballots may be returned by mail or dropped off at a drop box or a board of elections office as soon as ballots are completed.

Tuesday, Oct. 15: Deadline to register to vote for those voting by mail

While Maryland has same-day registration for voters who cast their ballots in person at a polling place, those who plan to vote by mail must register in advance either online or by mail.

For online registration, visit the Maryland State Board of Elections website to register to vote for the first time or update an existing registration if a name, address or political party affiliation has changed.

For registration by mail, print and complete a voter registration application, then mail it to a local board of elections.

Those not sure of their registration status can check online to see the current registration information and ballot drop box locations in each county.

Tuesday, Oct. 29: Deadline to request a mail-in ballot to be delivered by mail

Voters must fill out a form to request a ballot in the mail. Maryland is not an “all-mail” jurisdiction, like the District of Columbia, which sends every eligible voter a ballot.

The form to request a mail-in ballot can be found online. Print, complete and mail the application to a local board of elections office.

Voters also may visit a local board of elections office by the deadline to request a mail-in ballot.

Friday, Nov. 1: Deadline to request a mail-in ballot to be delivered online

Fill out this form online to request that a mail-in ballot to be delivered via email. The ballot still must be physically mailed in or taken to a drop box.

Tuesday, Nov. 5: Election Day and deadline to complete and return mail-in ballots

Completed ballots can be either mailed to a board of elections office, handed in at a board of elections office, or dropped in an official ballot drop box. On Election Day and during early voting hours, ballots also can be turned in at a polling place.

Ballots must be postmarked or dropped off by the close of polls at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5.

Twenty-five boards of elections offices manage voting across the state in Annapolis, Baltimore City and all 23 counties.The Maryland State Board of Elections is located at 151 West Street, Suite 200, Annapolis, MD 21401. Check online for the location and hours of local board of elections offices.

DeMarinis said that a common mistake that Maryland voters make on mail-in ballots, especially those voting by mail for the first time, is forgetting to sign the oath on the envelope containing the completed ballot. In that case, the State Board of Elections will contact the voter to provide the opportunity to sign the ballot before the count is concluded.

Questions about voting can be directed to the Maryland State Board of Elections at 410-269-2840. The state board is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify where the oath is located that voters must sign.

By: JACK BOWMAN

Capital News Service

ANNAPOLIS–Republican Larry Hogan is looking to peel off Democratic-leaning Jewish voters in his race for the U.S. Senate seat in Maryland, as the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict nears its one-year anniversary on Oct. 7. 

“The governor has said that he’s looking to win the Jewish vote in this election,” Michael Ricci, a spokesperson for former Gov. Hogan, told Capital News Service. “It’s a big point of emphasis for him every day, and not just because it’s about winning votes.”

In the lead-up to the election, Hogan has spoken to Jewish community groups, posted on social media and released official campaign statements that support Israel and Maryland’s Jewish community.

But leading Democratic officials argue that the Republican play for Jewish voters is a calculated political move, meant to drive a wedge between Democrats and this constituency.

“It’s pretty clear that some of the candidates would like to make that a wedge, but I don’t think they will be successful,” U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, told CNS in an exclusive interview. He argued that both candidates for Maryland’s open Senate seat, Hogan and Democratic nominee Angela Alsobrooks, strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself, as does he.

Alsobrooks provided a statement to CNS via a spokesperson but her campaign did not grant a request for an interview with her or her staff.

The two candidates face different paths to winning the race. As a Republican, Hogan is free to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without worrying about alienating progressives increasingly concerned with the human toll in Gaza. Alsobrooks, on the other hand, faces the challenge of holding together an ideologically diverse Democratic coalition, reaching out to all Jewish voters as well as to progressives.

The Hogan campaign’s focus on Jewish voters represents an effort to pull from a generally strong Democratic base. According to the Pew Research Center, 71% of Jewish adults in the U.S. leaned towards or identified with the Democratic Party in a survey conducted between 2019 and 2020. 

Democrats dominate voting in Maryland, where President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by more than 33 points, taking home 65.4% of the state’s votes to Trump’s 32.2%. But recent polls suggest this race might be much tighter than that.

“I still think that the county executive [Alsobrooks] will win the majority of the Jewish vote,” said Ron Halber, chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington. “But, like I’ve said to others, it’s whether she’s going to win 55% or 85%.”

Still, Hogan is trying. He has repeatedly expressed support for Israel and its right to defend itself, making it a key part of his campaign platform. 

In a March 2024 address to the JCRC, which represents Jewish organizations, synagogues and agencies, Hogan took aim at demonstrations in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks that killed about 1,200 in Israel. 

“[The protests] are attacking the legitimacy of the world’s only Jewish state and its right to defend itself,” Hogan said. 

Hogan, in the same address, also said, “Maryland needs a pro-Israel champion in the United States Senate.”

Another way Hogan has sought support in the Jewish community is through emphasizing his track record as governor. In addressing the JCRC, Hogan spoke of his trade mission to Israel in 2016 and his enactment of an executive order in 2023 that prohibited Maryland agencies from entering contracts with businesses unless the businesses certify that they will not boycott Israel.

“Larry gets it,” former Democratic Maryland State senator and co-chair of Democrats for Hogan Robert “Bobby” Zirkin told CNS. “He’s been to Israel a number of times when he was governor.”

Meanwhile, Alsobrooks and her campaign have focused more on the areas of common ground among Democrats. In her own address to the JCRC in April, Alsobrooks focused on bringing home hostages and removing the threat of Hamas from the world while mitigating the civilian casualties in Gaza. 

Similarly, in the statement provided to CNS this week, Alsobrooks emphasized her support of Israel, focusing on the hostages taken by Hamas.

“Our priority must be bringing home every single hostage and getting to a ceasefire,” Alsobrooks said in the statement. “As a mother, my heart breaks for the families of the hostages and we must do everything in our power to bring them home now.”

Alsobrooks also stressed the importance of protecting the civilians of Gaza, saying, “we need to ensure that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is addressed, that aid is arriving, and that we are doing everything we can to ensure the flow of aid to innocent civilians.”

Alsobrooks, who visited Israel in 2019, has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, whom she hopes to replace. Cardin, who identifies as a “proud Jewish-American,” has supported Israel’s right to defend itself in the conflict.

Van Hollen has been outspoken in his concern about the civilian casualties in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, where the death toll has climbed to over 40,000, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. 

He says that Maryland’s Jewish community is not homogenous in its views.

“There’s a great diversity of opinion within the Maryland Jewish community,” he said.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee in the race for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat, recalls flying to California in June 2016, the weekend before the state’s primary election that year, to join now-Vice President Kamala Harris as she campaigned for U.S. Senate.

“What struck me during the time that I was there was that the weekend before this very exciting race, she was not talking about herself. She wasn’t even talking about her race. She was talking about me — asking me how things were going with me, with the job. She was asking about various issues, giving advice,” Alsobrooks said in an interview with WYPR.

That, in a nutshell, is who Harris is, Alsobrooks said.

“They say politicians talk about themselves, but what we know is leaders talk about others, and Vice President Harris is a leader,” she said.

Read more (and listen) at WYPR.

There was a lot of talk about the chairs.

Specifically, the talk was about how the chairs in the middle room of the Baltimore County Board of Elections training facility in Owings Mills roll around a lot. I suppose you can lock the wheels, but nobody did as we gathered for election worker training.

This is precisely the kind of conversation a group of 20 or so people who have never met one another have when they get together for the first time. The rolling chairs were less a problem for me than an object of curiosity. It might be more of a problem, I think, for the several of us who arrived with the help of canes or walkers. The ease with which the chairs roll makes them easy to miss when you sit down, though nobody does. We just roll around a lot.

There’s another group of about 20 people in each of the rooms on either side of us, one where veteran Election Judges are getting a refresher course in how to use the electronic pollbooks, which log voters in to the voting system and generate Voter Authority Cards, and the other where people are learning the intricacies of the Ballot Marking Device, an electronic alternative to the low-tech fill-in-the-bubble-with-a-pen paper ballot.

According to the 300-page Election Judge Manual all of us prospective Election Judges have been given, we are to, on the one hand, let voters choose whichever method of voting they prefer, but on the other, make sure that at least 10 voters use the electronic method by 1:00 p.m. on primary day. This proves harder to do when an electronic machine breaks down. More on that later.

This makes 60 of us total in the training, and we are just one group of many in Baltimore County being trained. We’re not volunteers. In Maryland, Election Judges get paid $250 to work an election, and $50 for the training.

Working an election means working a long day — Election Judges are expected to arrive at 5:45 in the morning and stay until things are cleaned up after the polls close at 8:00 that evening. Several people I spoke to wondered why the day isn’t broken up, with people assigned to shorter shifts. Some thought this would make it easier to recruit poll workers, while others thought it would make it harder to fully staff an election.

A national perspective

A 2016 report found that on the general election day that year there were more than 106,000 polling places in the U.S. Nearly a quarter of poll workers were age 71 or older, the study found, and another 34 percent were between 61 and 70. Many were likely retired, though many in our training group looked young enough that they were not.

Almost two-thirds of the people responsible for staffing these polling places said they had some problems doing so.

I’m not sure how I became a poll worker. The person who first called me about being one thanked me for signing up. I don’t remember signing up, though I probably did, and when she called I couldn’t think of a good reason why I couldn’t be a poll worker. So I said yes. I am one of those rare people who doesn’t exactly like being called for jury duty, either, but doesn’t try to get out of it.

I fit the demographic, sort of. I still work, though I am mostly retired from making real money. I am not among the oldest cohort of poll workers, though I fall in that 61-to-70 age group.

I asked the Election Program Assistant who first contacted me if it was okay if I wrote about the experience of being a poll worker. Each time, she forwarded my query to her supervisor. I never got a response. My self-imposed restrictions, therefore, are to write exclusively about the process of being a poll worker. I will advocate for no particular candidate or party, nor will I mention anyone’s name. I should add that all of my fellow poll workers with whom I discussed my plan to write about being a poll worker thought it was a good idea.

My 360-degree turnaround

I have come around a full 360 degrees on how I feel about this process. When most people say that, what they mean is that they came around 180 degrees, to the opposite conclusion they went in with. I really mean 360 degrees. I went into it thinking it would be a great lesson in civic responsibility. I went through a time — post-training, pre-election — where I thought it would be a disaster. I came out of it thinking, once again, how it was a great lesson in civic responsibility.

Why did I think it would be a disaster? The training, even at three hours, felt rushed, and for me at least left something to be desired. The person demonstrating how to use the electronic marking devices, for example, repeatedly emphasized that we were not to touch voters’ ballots, then proceeded to do just that with the hypothetical ballot he used to demonstrate. This left me confused. When we were trained on the pollbooks, we managed to register just three hypothetical voters during our hour of training, and were told by our instructor what a great job we had done. Just three? Really? We would process nearly 500 people in the 12 hours of the actual primary election in May, or about 40 an hour. The November election figures to be even busier.

The manual we were each given has 14 chapters, plus appendices and a glossary, and clocks in at nearly 300 pages. I doubt that many trainees ever bothered reading the whole thing, let alone committing it to memory. On primary day, however, the manual was consulted frequently.

A few minutes before our training session was supposed to end (we went from 9:00 am to noon), one person asked if we would get out on time. Others seemed concerned about this as well. I had lost track of time, and didn’t feel the time crunch as acutely as some. Nor did I feel ready for election day.

Election Day

On primary election day, May 14, I displayed a remarkable ability to break machines, or at least to work at machines that broke on their own while I was in charge of them. I started out helping voters who chose to vote using the Ballot Marking Device. We had two, and one stopped cooperating. No one was sure why, and after a reboot (necessitating the use of a password that one of our two Chief Election Judges managed to remember, though I did not), the machine started again, until it stopped, necessitating another reboot.

At one point a coworker, a veteran of many elections, suggested I work at other stations so I could learn about them. (He may have just been trying to get rid of me.) Anyway, around 1:00 p.m. I left the electronic voting machine and took a seat at the pollbook table, where I would log voters in and issue them their Voter Authority Cards. After a brief tutorial — courtesy of another veteran poll worker — I managed to check people in without difficulty, though I dreaded getting a problem person, who was unaffiliated with either of the two major political parties, or who didn’t show up in our system, or who the pollbook said had already voted, and who would be sent to the “provisional” ballot table, which meant that maybe his or her ballot would be counted, or maybe not. (More than once, we had to explain what provisional meant.)

The pollbook at which I sat crashed, or I broke it, or something. In any event, it stopped working, no matter how many times I poked it with my plastic stylus. It had to be shut down, given a rest, and then restarted. This happened twice. As far as I know, mine was the only pollbook to behave this way.

I watched across the room and experienced smug satisfaction when I saw two election workers struggling with one of the Ballot Marking Devices I had abandoned. Apparently the problem was that someone had shoved a pen cap in where the paper ballot is supposed to go. No one knew why anyone would think to do this, though theories abounded. Once the pen cap was dislodged, the injured machine completed the day without incident.

At one point someone at the pollbook station started circulating a document that said that 45 percent of poll workers felt unsafe doing their job. I asked around, and found no one in our group who felt unsafe, though I had earlier talked to a veteran poll worker who said that in the past he had encountered voters who were certain he was rigging things, or otherwise expressed doubts about the integrity of the process.

During the primary, we poll workers celebrated when appropriate, like when a first-time voter checked in and was subjected (with his or her permission) to a round of applause, given an American flag, and festooned with bling. The voters were cordial, and many expressed what seemed like heartfelt appreciation for our efforts. Our most gregarious poll worker gave out “I Voted” stickers and made all voters feel like a million bucks as they left.

We eventually decided that the document found at our station was too political or too biased, and had no business being near us. We threw it away.

Pros and cons

So, what do I think of the process? On the negative side, poll workers in Baltimore County work a too-long day of at least 14 hours. The pay isn’t great — about $18.00 an hour, plus a little less than that for the training. And it’s a one-time or two-time gig, though the manual says our “term of office” is “approximately two years and ends thirteen weeks before the 2026 Gubernatorial Primary Election.” I found the training to leave something to be desired. The manual is too long to synthesize. There were all those rolling chairs.

And the pros? There were many. There’s nothing like actually being on the job. I learned more from actually doing things than I ever learned from the training, and even the training was done by well-meaning people for well-meaning people, so in that sense, it had much to recommend. More important than what I learned, I developed an affinity for my coworkers. We bonded, I think, or at least started to. We wore different hats and were a different bleary-eyed bunch when we finished than we were when we arrived that morning, bleary-eyed from waking up too early. Plus, how often do you get to spend the day around civic-minded people who take seriously their obligation to fulfill a civic need?

Were mistakes made? Probably. We are human, after all, and humans make mistakes. Was there fraud? Absolutely not. Fraud implies intent, and if there was any intent in our group, it was to fix problems, not cause them. We tried our best to fix broken machines and to iron out any discrepancies. I recall that as our total number of voters grew, some in our group obsessed over a difference of a fraction of a percent in our count.

By 8:30 pm, we had largely cleaned up and almost everybody was gone. The speed with which my coworkers had left had me reconsidering my thoughts about how well we’d bonded, but then, we’d been there since before 6:00 that morning, so maybe I should cut them some slack for bolting without even exchanging email addresses. Besides, we can do that in November.