ROCKVILLE, Md. — A Maryland appeals courtroom has rejected a request by Maryland’s Republican gubernatorial nominee to delay counting of mail-in ballots that might begin as quickly as Saturday.
Maryland
Maryland court says mail-in ballot count can start Saturday
Whereas the ruling clears the way in which for counties to start out processing ballots on Saturday, it’s not clear what number of will begin that quickly. The Baltimore Solar stories {that a} vendor for the state didn’t begin mailing ballots till Thursday and a few gained’t be mailed out till subsequent week.
A Montgomery County Circuit Courtroom choose had beforehand granted the Maryland State Board of Elections’ request to permit native elections officers to start canvassing mail-in ballots on Oct. 1, as a substitute of ready till after Nov. 8. That choose reasoned that the amount of mail-in ballots would in any other case stop native boards of election from verifying the vote rely inside 10 days of the final election as required.
Cox, who’s endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is difficult Democrat Wes Moore to exchange Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who’s term-limited.
Counting mail-in ballots earlier than Election Day was allowed in 2020 throughout a state of emergency, when voting by mail elevated because of the pandemic. However as a result of the state of emergency expired, the state returned to a regulation that doesn’t enable mail-in ballots to be counted till after Election Day.
Final month, the state elections board voted to file an emergency petition in hopes of dashing up the vote rely for mail-in ballots, which have change into way more in style. With out the change, board members have mentioned that native, statewide, and even federal contests could possibly be left with out licensed outcomes till late December or early January.