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Some Maryland voters may have seen early-voting results for local precincts, while they waited in line to vote on Election Day last week.
Nikki Charlson, deputy manager for the Maryland State Board of Elections, said voters were still waiting in line when some localities posted their early-voting results.
“We wish that results hadn’t been released when voters were still voting,” Charlson said Wednesday. “We will work with local election officials to make sure that this doesn’t recur.”
Next, the State Board of Elections sent an embargo to the local boards of elections, asking them not to release early-voting results until all voters waiting in line were able to vote.
“There was at least one precinct in Montgomery County that was open at 9:30[p.m.],” Charlson said.
Prince George’s County and other localities also still had voters waiting in line to vote, Charlson said.
Gilberto Zelaya, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said that as soon as the director of the board of elections received the embargo from the state board, an information technology technician removed the early-voting numbers from the County website.
“Once polls closed, we release[d] our early-voting numbers,” Zelaya said. “Then we got a notice from the state that there were still early-voting [places open]… across the state.”
He said people could view early-voting numbers on the County Board of Elections for a few minutes before the IT technician removed them.
“They [early-voting results] were up for a little bit,” Zelaya said.
Charlson said she anticipates that the State Board of Elections will receive data that include information on check-in and check-out times of local boards of elections during the next few weeks.
Tuesday, Zelaya said Montgomery County Board of Elections personnel had not finished counting and vetting provisional and absentee ballots.
