Suggestions by Gov. Bob Ehrlich and County Exec. Doug Duncan (and, of course, this trendsetting blog) that voters might want to vote absentee this year has apparently resulted in a shortage of absentee ballots according the Gazette:
Worried about a repeat of September’s election debacle, voters have been asking for so many absentee ballots that they may cause the very problems they are trying to avoid, local elections officials say.Many local boards, including Montgomery County’s, have not yet received all their ballots from the printing company, and officials are concerned that some voters may not be able to vote.
Montgomery has received only about 12,000 absentee ballots, 7,000 short of the number of completed voter applications so far, county Elections Director Margaret A. Jurgensen told elections board members in Rockville on Monday afternoon. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Oct. 31.
And guess what company is responsible for solving the problem? You guessed right: Diebold, the company that has made the rest of our electoral process run so smoothly. Money whine from company spokesman:
Diebold Election Systems, which prints the state’s paper ballots, insisted that all of Maryland’s counties and Baltimore city received their requested allotments in the past week and over the weekend.‘‘Each county orders the amount of ballots they’re expected to need, which is a rolling number,” said Jessica Goon, a Diebold spokeswoman. ‘‘Using a staggered delivery each county receives between 20 and 100 percent of the amount of ballots that they will need.” If counties need more ballots, Diebold will provide them, she said.
What is this? Some kind of Crab Republic?
