Ramos introduces investigative hearing on election irregularities

The hearing is scheduled for Thursday September 29th at 2pm, the link will be available here soon.

These are my opening remarks when introducing 22-0121R - Investigative Hearing - 2022 Primary Election Irregularities.

This resolution calls for an investigative hearing with the Director of the Baltimore City Board of Elections and the State Board of Elections. In the two weeks before the primary election there have been several irregularities that eroded the confidence in the voting system. My constituents and residents across the city have sent in the problems that they have had.

In some areas in my district, voters received the correct mail-in ballots, only to have the Board of Elections send a letter and a different ballot - which was incorrect. These voters had to have a third ballot sent to them to correct these errors, and the first two ballots were nullified. The confusion, especially for elders in my district, was astonishing.

In other areas in my district, people received an incorrect voter registration card for another district. When going to that polling place, or their normal polling place, they were met with confusion as to why they were there and often did not know to ask for the provisional ballot for their district. 

These last two examples happened along the boundaries of two legislative districts, but these boundaries did not change during the redistricting process.

Other examples include confusion at the polling places, not enough judges, and in several polling places no chief judge - so someone was assigned on the spot and expected to take on that role with no training. 

The missing flash drives that hit the news was just a fraction of the issues we encountered.

So, during this hearing, we will explore these issues and any others that residents write to us about.  We will try to understand why these errors happened and how to avoid the errors next time.

I realize the State Board is not compelled to come before us, but we will make the ask.

I also know that this is not the first time that City Councils in the past have called the BOE in front of us. Election irregularities are not new, and my colleagues before me have sought to get to the bottom of election issues before.

I do want to thank everyone who showed up as an election judge, because that is a hard job. I want to thank the BOE staff that worked hard with me and other elected officials to resolve these irregularities as well. Your work to preserve the integrity of our elections is valued and appreciated.

I am looking forward to the hearing.