Election controversy in Pocomoke

In Pocomoke City, Md. the issue is not whether to hold a re-vote in District one, it’s whether to open it to all voters, or only the 132 who voted the first time.

After a voting machine error left five of those votes unaccounted for last week, the city’s board of elections said they planned on sending absentee ballots to those original 132 voters.

Upon learning this, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to the board of elections claiming that the decision to not open the election up to all registered voters was unconstitutional. In the letter the ACLU threatened a lawsuit if the board of elections refused to fully re-open the election.

However according to the state board of elections, state election law allows for municipal elections to be governed by the municipality itself.

“The provisions of this section do not apply to a municipal corporation in the state in which the municipal or charter elections are regulated by public local laws of the state,” said Donna Duncan, assistant deputy for election policy for the state.

Some political experts though, such as Dr. Sam Hoff of Delaware State University, side with the ACLU. Hoff said that federal law such as the 1964 Voting Rights Act still applies in this scenario.

“(Pocomoke’s) rationale, whatever it is, for only limiting it to the first folks seems to be deficient,” Hoff said. “I think politically it’s a very poor decision and legally I think they would lose.”

Hoff said in order to justify their decision , the board of elections could have to prove that opening up the election to all registered voters would be a burden.

Hoff said that burden is normally the financial cost that a fully open election would carry.

“I don’t see that as problem in terms of rerunning the election with all the registered voters versus the ones that did if the first time so that argument should be null and void,” Hoff said.

47 ABC spoke with citizens in Pocomoke Monday and gathered a variety of opinions, some said the election should be open to all, some sided with city, and some said they were sick of hearing about their city in the news.

“Why should the ACLU get involved in it, I mean this is just a small town, it’s a council election, it’s not like we were electing the president,” said longtime resident, Ruth Hensley.

The legal counsel for the board of elections declined to comment for this story.