Maria Leaf
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON– Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Association said on Sunday 19,000 voters who used an MVA self-service kiosk or website to update their address or party affiliation without purchasing a driver’s license, identification card, vehicle registration, title or other item didn’t have their information properly updated due a glitch in the system.
Monday night, that number grew to “approximately 80,000”.
According to a statement from MDOT MVA Administrator Christine Nizer: “When it was confirmed on Friday that some individuals’ updated voter registration information had not been successfully transmitted from the MDOT MVA to the State Board of Elections, we immediately began working around the clock to identify the scope of the problem and get information out to impacted voters. In our sense of urgency to inform the public given the close proximity of the primary election, the numbers that were initially reported did not accurately reflect the total scope of the people impacted. Upon further review and analysis, we discovered that the initial data provided did not include all those impacted.”
Nizer says the State Board of Elections has sent out nearly 74,000 email messages to alert voters and encourage them to verify their information is correct, and to find the correct polling place.
Affected voters made changes to their information between between April 22, 2017 through June 5, 2018.
Nizer stresses, “No eligible voter will be denied the right to vote as a result of this programming error. Impacted voters should report to the polling place associated with their current address and vote using a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are counted in all Maryland elections.”
Voters can call 1-800-222-8683 between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. For questions on election day, there will be trained poll workers to answer voter’s questions and guide them through the provisional voting process.
In a statement, Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn says the MDOT auditor will be conducting an immediate review of MDOT MVA’s Information Technology systems and management controls. “While all Marylanders, who are eligible to vote in this election, can vote tomorrow, the fact that their information wasn’t updated with the State Board of Elections as it should have been is unacceptable and will be remedied. I apologize to the Marylanders that count on us every day, and I assure all impacted voters that we will work overtime to make this right.”
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