House Panel Flags Maryland’s Mail Ballot ‘Error’

After Maryland announced an error within a massive shipment of more than 500,000 mail-in ballots, Rep. Greg Murphy had a one-word description.

“Oops,” the North Carolina Republican said during a hearing Wednesday of the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections.

“What’s the deal going on with Maryland?” Murphy asked Don Palmer, a former chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

“It’s a very, it’s a huge mistake. Obviously, you can point at the vendor and say, well, the vendor made this mistake, but the buck stops with the election officials,” Palmer, now a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told the House panel.

The Maryland State Board of Elections announced Friday that a portion of mail ballots for the June 23 party primaries went to voters of the wrong party. The board said it would be resending all 565,000 mail ballots, which should arrive at voters’ addresses by May 29.

Palmer, a former Florida elections director, said he has sympathy for election officials and their responsibility, but said, “it’s that type of thing that hurts confidence.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “In Maryland, they sent out 500,000 illegal mail-in ballots, and they got caught!”

The Maryland State Board of Elections did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal on Tuesday or Wednesday about the ballots.

State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis posted on X that “no fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed.” He added, “The wording in President Trump’s continued posts about Maryland’s elections creates an environment of misinformation on a voting right. Mail-in voting is not a partisan issue. Mail-in voting is legal.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Palmer noted bipartisan concern from members of Congress and outside groups about the security of voter registration systems.

“Even more so, there have been documented instances of vulnerabilities being identified and those vulnerabilities being exploited,” Palmer said. “Most of the breaches of a voter registration system don’t necessarily mean results are going to be changed. But the impact on the public confidence could be very negative.”

Murphy later asked current Election Assistance Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks during the hearing how much the federal government should pay to cover the cost of elections.

“Elections overall cost $6 billion. I think two years ago for Congress to appropriate $15 million is not enough,” Hicks said. “So, if I had my druthers, I’d say the federal government should pay 100% of federal elections. But that’s not for me to decide.”

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., asked Hicks what the Election Assistance Commission is doing to ensure noncitizens aren’t voting.

“States run the elections and it’s illegal for noncitizens to vote. We don’t play an active role in who can and can’t vote,” Hicks said. “EAC does not run elections. We cannot do anything to stop that. That’s a state issue.”

Miller responded, “If you want the federal government to pick up the tab for elections, then maybe the federal government could say you have to have a photo ID and you have to be a U.S. citizen [to vote].”