Sheila Dixon Campaign Says Candidates, Media Barred from Today’s State BOE Proceedings

By Bmorenews Staff

(BALTIMORE – May 16, 2016) – Well, here is the latest in news regarding Baltimore’s Primary Election de-certification that happened late last week. According to sources close to the Sheila Dixon campaign, candidates’ representatives and the media were not allowed to review the re-counting of ballots today. Details are sketchy, but Team Dixon are in the middle of dealing with the courts as they face a 4:30 pm deadline.

On the other hand – here is the latest from the State Board of Elections:

On May 17, 2016 at 10:30 am, the Baltimore City Board of Elections and the State Board of Elections will provide the media and representatives of candidates on the City’s 2016 Primary Election ballot access to the Baltimore City Board of Elections’ warehouse.  State and local election officials are currently working together to review and reconcile documents from the 2016 Primary Election.  Media and candidates will be permitted to access the secured facility and observe the on-going process of reviewing and reconciling documents from the 2106 Primary Election. To ensure the integrity and security of the equipment and documents, the observation area will be limited.  State and local election officials will be available to explain the process and answer questions.

The warehouse is located at 301 North Franklintown Road, Baltimore MD 21223.   

In short, reps of candidates and the media will be allowed a review tomorrow.

All of this comes on the heels of last week’s decision by the State Board to not certify Baltimore’s primary election results. At last check, Dixon was behind by about 2,700 votes.

On Thursday, the State Board issued the following statement:

Over the last several days, the State Board of Elections has been conducting its normal review and reconciliation of the election data for the recent primary. Because of discrepancies in some of the data for Baltimore City,the State Administrator has decided that the election data for all precincts in the City will be reviewed. In light of that decision, the Baltimore City Board of Canvassers will be rescinding its certification of the election results pending completion of the State Board’s review. It is expected that the Baltimore City Board of Canvassers will rescind its certification today at 6 pm.

In an interview with the AFRO last week, Linda Lamone, the State Administrator for the Maryland Board of Elections, indicated that there were three specific issues that arose in this primary election that prompted de-certification:

• First, on Tuesday evening Baltimore City found a number of misplaced ballots that had not been counted. Lamone noted that this is not uncommon and, in fact, occurs across the country on a fairly consistent basis.

• Second, the State Board of Elections requires all local boards to provide to it a post-election reconciliation report prior to state certification. In reviewing Baltimore City’s report the State Board found a number of inconsistencies in some of the key metrics. In particular, she cited an irregularity found between the number of voters that checked in to precincts as compared to the number of ballots cast in those precincts.

• Third, deadlines as outlined by the state of Maryland for recourse in the election were fast approaching. In fact, today is the deadline to request a recount for the primary election and Monday is the deadline to file a legal motion to contest the election. Lamone said she felt that with the looming deadlines, decertification was the fairest thing to do for both voters and candidates to ensure that things were handled correctly. She said in essence this would put a hold on the deadlines which would restart after the investigation was completed.