Hogan should quickly set up mail-in voting

Maryland’s first, rushed experience with mail-in voting last month had some failings.

Voters in Anne Arundel County experienced long lines at the handful of inperson polling places for the June 2 primary, ballots were printed incorrectly in Baltimore, arrived late there as well as in Montgomery County and showed up with Spanish language instructions in Prince George’s County.

All of these problems are attributable to the rush needed to make a mail-in election happen. Gov. Larry Hogan announced a delay in the primary and a shift to a mail-in process at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Mistakes were made.

The decision on whether to do it again in November, however, is stalled along party lines. Republicans don’t have confidence that there are enough safeguards against fraud in mail-in voting. Democrats point to the almost total lack of fraud in Maryland and wonder what the Republicans are talking about.

That division kept the five-member Maryland State Board of Elections from reaching consensus on a recommendation. Last week, it sent Hogan a report on what happened in the June 2 primary without a recommendation and left the choice up to the Republican governor.

That presents an interesting conundrum for Hogan, the author of this process and leader of the party with the gravest doubts about it. We think he should opt for improving the mail-in process invented for the primary rather than going with something new.

Hogan made the right choice to set up mail-in voting for the primary, driven by public health concerns about spreading the virus. COVID-19 is at an ebb point this summer, but no one knows how the pandemic might affect Maryland by the time November rolls around. The signs of a resurgence in other parts of the country are worrisome.

Local election officials have indicated they don’t see a traditional election, where most people turn out to the polls during the early voting period or on election day, as a safe option. Finding poll workers, most often retirees, will prove difficult.

Republicans on the elections board want to send applications for mail-in ballots to all voters — a new model. Democrats back a mostly mail-in election similar to the June primary but with additional in-person voting sites on Election Day.

It is important to note that none of the results locally were contested. In-person voting didn’t change the outcome of a single race. Yet it is equally important that voters have confidence in the process. They have to believe that their vote was counted and the outcome was honest for the democratic process to work.

Whether the problems in getting accurate ballots were the fault of ballot vendor SeaChange, as the state says, or that of the state, as SeaChange says, the short turnaround time was, without doubt, the underlying problem. Hogan can eliminate that by deciding now to move forward and setting clear goals for improvement.

Requiring an application for a mail-in ballot would be tantamount to a second voter registration, and would suppress turnout. It is a fix for a problem that does not exist.

Providing better organized mail-in ballots for all registered voters and adding more in-person polling places should eliminate the most common problem encountered in June and boost confidence.

The governor has given no timetable for this decision. But if he’s going to take advantage of the extra weeks to get a mail-in general election right, he needs to move quickly.

Hogan should move ahead with plans for a mail-in election in November.