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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Maryland goes back to paper ballots for primary election

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Maryland is going back to basics — an ink pen and paper ballot — for this month’s presidential primary. Like every new voting system, this one has some quirks that likely will become more apparent when the November general election brings more than 2 million Maryland voters to the polls.

The system requires most voters to mark their ballots by filling in ovals, similar to those on standardized tests, with pens provided by election judges. Voters feed their marked ballots into scanning machines that tabulate the results.

The new system largely replaces touch-screen terminals, which eliminated the “hanging chads” and other difficulties in discerning voter intent on paper punch-card ballots highlighted by the 2000 presidential election.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

easier to rig an election, and stuff the box

Anonymous said...

Hopefully they'll have enough ballots for all the voters. I'd heard some of the Illinois precincts ran out very early during their primary. Shaking my head at that. The Election Board has one job...

Anonymous said...

3:28 you're wrong. these machines have been 'rigged' all over the country for the past 10 or more years. Diebold admitted such. If you remember, Maryland's machines were 'rigged' in the last election...we saw that right here in Wicomico County. Joe reported it right away so we could get the attention it needed and make our voices heard. It was so odd that Only the Republicans had trouble with their votes. hmmmmm

Anonymous said...

3:28. These aren't Diebold machines.

Anonymous said...

Can only use the pen they give you to use? I hope it's not some of those "magic" pens that record something different than what was marked.