Baltimore County elections office outlines 2026 preparations, cites redistricting uncertainty

The Baltimore County Board of Elections director told the board on Thursday that preparations for the 2026 election are underway but that county redistricting uncertainty could delay parts of the polling-place plan.

The director said routine maintenance and audits are complete or in progress, and that staff training, election-judge recruitment and ballot-security work are under way. The director also warned the board that the county council has produced multiple redistricting maps and that lawsuits or additional hearings could push the start of precinct planning.

The director opened the report by noting routine operational items and outreach work completed during July and August, and the office’s use of Baltimore County professional-development resources for staff. “The generator is working well, which is good because it was a million dollars,” the director said, describing recent maintenance and automatic testing for the facility backup system. Office equipment upgrades and warehouse lighting and HVAC maintenance were also reported as in progress.

On election equipment, the director said teams completed a multi-week battery replacement cycle and coordinated with ES&S for CMOS battery updates to voting machines. The office is retaining two election cycles’ materials and will shred 2020 and 2022 election documents after court authorization; the director said shredding costs are roughly three times normal because two years of materials must be destroyed simultaneously.

The director reported progress on the manual audit of voter records and said audit teams had reviewed about 43,000 individual records to date while the voter file totals roughly 700,000 records. “We actually were the total number of records audited did 43 or 43,000,” a staff member said when summarizing the audit count. The director said some audit work paused while staff attached provisional-voter documentation required by the state for certain cases.

Staff also described several administrative preparations: a revised election-judge training program with videos and quizzes, ongoing outreach for National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 16 at four county libraries, and plans to mail a “poll worker appreciation” postcard and refrigerator magnet to judges during the off year.

On redistricting and planning, the director said the county council has multiple competing maps and that litigation is possible. “There’s 3 maps out there. Each map, somebody’s threatened to sue,” the director said, adding that if the council provides a final map Sept. 15 the office will be ready to proceed; if not, a court order could determine the schedule. Because Maryland law sets deadlines for the county polling-place and ballot-plan submissions, the director said staff will post recommendations for ballot boxes and early voting centers before September and complete the precinct polling-place plan once the council’s map is final.

State Administrator Jared DeMarinis attended to observe the board’s closed-session performance evaluation process; he did not take part in the director’s operational briefing. Board counsel told members that national litigation and federal-state procedural disputes do not currently name the county board as a party, but any federal or state changes issued later could bind local procedures.

The board approved the draft meeting minutes from June 18 with a minor date correction, then moved on to administrative items and a closed session scheduled after a short break.

Board members asked questions about audit timing and staffing; staff projected completion of the manual audit by March (timeline described as “about a year”), noting some vacancies and expected leave delays. The director said the office will share the state comprehensive audit and the director’s written response with board members before the September meeting.