The Baltimore Sun reports that the the State Board of Elections has ordered up around one paper ballot for every two voters as a backup in case the problems that plagued Maryland on primary day reappear at the general election. This is a wise decision as the state waits with baited breath to see if the e-poll books used to check-in voters still crash with great regularity.
I remain concerned based on the report that voters who experience problems at the polls will be made to cast provisional ballots rather than official ballots:
A portion of the 1.6 million ballots -- at least 66,000 and probably many more -- will be mailed to voters as absentee ballots. The rest will be available as provisional ballots, the Election Day backups that were relied upon so heavily during the September primary that some precincts ran out.Just because the machines crash is no reason that a voter should have to worry that the ballot will not be counted. Backup ballots should be kept separately from genuine provisional ballots which are cast because it is unclear whether the voter has a right to vote in the election.
