County officials are still working to help voters understand the process of receiving and completing their ballots after a printing error produced 500,000 ballots which contained errors.
This was the latest update shared from the media briefing held by County Executive Marc Elrich on Thursday. Residents who received a second ballot are highly encouraged to use it. Canvassing began Monday June 1 in Gaithersburg. Early votes are being processed but are not tabulated until after Election Day.
David Naimon, President of the Montgomery County Board of Elections said “most residents who have reached out simply wanted to know when their new ballots would arrive.” Ballots were mailed from a Minnesota vendor on May 26 and voters started to receive them on May 30.
Roughly 6,000 of the early ballot batch have been received so far. Those ballots will only be counted if a second ballot is not sent. If voters have a doubt if the first ballot was for the right party, they are encouraged to fill out the second ballot and mail it or use the drop box options. Ballots are only opened by bi-partisan teams and barcodes help ensure no votes can be counted twice.
Ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by July 6 at 10 a.m. will be counted. The county processed nearly 27,000 provisional ballots in the last election.
The county is looking for election judges and other volunteers. If you are interested, please text “Serve” to 77788.
