Secure the Vote Maryland Presentation to Frederick County Board of Elections 6.11.25
SecureTheVoteMD listed Frederick County as one of the most compliant Counties in Maryland with respect to the Open Meetings Act. And I thank this board for their dedication to open meetings.
Upon reading Frederick’s Election Meeting Minutes, I discovered that the information being provided has decreased over time. Public comments were recorded in your meeting minutes, now they do not. In 2022, the Mail-in Ballot Canvass minutes included the party affiliations of those performing the canvass. However, in the 2024 Election that was not provided. I am here to request that you amend the minutes for those Canvasses to include the party affiliations of individuals working on the canvassing. Keeping party affiliation private of those individuals only serves to obfuscate the process, making it less transparent to the public.
In May, before the primary you voted to allow bipartisan canvass teams to duplicate ballots without sending them to the Board of Canvasser for review in certain instances. This essentially allowed all canvass teams to be duplication teams. I used information posted on your website of those individuals who worked on the 2022 election to discover that the 2024 Canvass had at least 4 of the 11 duplication teams which were NOT bipartisan teams, but rather same party teams. When I came to your office and asked for that information I was told to purchase the voter list and research that for myself.
As the Deputy Election Director knew that is darn near impossible without the addresses or ages and in some cases the canvasser was only listed as “Ray”. There were 10 listings for Charles Brown on the Frederick County list.
The most alarming thing which I found was the April 22 Mail-in ballot Canvass was performed by two teams of canvassers. In each case, they were an Unaffiliated person paired with a Democrat. Not one Republican was listed. In the 2022 Canvassing Minutes it was clear that Frederick County was able to create bipartisan teams, but in 2024 I found 17 pairs with the same party affiliation working as a team. COMAR 33.08.04.02(A)(2) says, to the extent practicable the teams shall be bipartisan. Without those party affiliations listed on the meeting minutes, it appears Frederick County is less likely to follow regulations.
Please amend your canvassers minutes to include party affiliations.
Testimony provided to Frederick County Board of Elections on June 11 starts at 30:00 Minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNT-DwhMR9Q&t=1368s
Kelly Foster, Secure the Vote Maryland
