Worcester Board of Elections hear residents concerns over voting in the county

WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. – Some Worcester County community members joined in on the Worcester County Board of Elections meeting Wednesday morning to voice their concerns over election integrity.

“I was just concerned about the mail-in ballot, what stops me from doing a mail-in ballot and then going in and trying to vote in person,” Dennis Evans, a Berlin resident who attended the meeting, said.

But, Evans said the board addressed his concerns. He said if someone is trying to vote more than once a safeguard is in place to catch the fraud.

“When a person signs for a mail-in ballot they sign their name under perjury that they are registered and qualified to vote and also when they return their voted ballot they sign the oath envelope, Patricia Jackson, election director, said. “Which states they are qualified to vote in this election and they have not voted anywhere else.”

Another concern addressed at the meeting pertains to county voting rolls. County residents in attendance wanted to make sure people who moved out of the area or who are deceased didn’t have a vote counting in their name.

“We were concerned about the voter rolls and who was on the voter rolls and who shouldn’t be on the voter rolls,” Evans said.

Once again, the Board of election members reassured the residents there’s a structured way to handle these things.

“If we have received return mail from a voter, we send them a confirmation mailing and it gives them 14 days to update their address,” Jackson said. “If we don’t hear from them, we put them in an inactive status and that gives them two federal elections, which is 4 years, to change their address. If they don’t vote between that four year period, we remove them from the voter rolls.”

Jackson said that these types of questions are asked all the time, but once they explain the process, people almost always understand.

“I think it was a very good meeting, I think they understand now what our processes are and how we have to follow state and federal law,” Jackson said.

“The members of the board here addressed all of our concerns very well and I think Worcester County is a shining example of the way the rest of the nation should be,” Evans said.