Baltimore County elections director: office readying for primary, will seek Alliance certification
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Summary
The Baltimore County elections director told the board the office has completed key preparations — including a pilot risk‑limiting audit and equipment inventory — and plans to submit for Alliance for Election Excellence recognition after meeting six standards.
The Baltimore County elections director said the office is on track for the 2026 primary and will submit an application to the Alliance for Election Excellence after meeting the program’s six standards.
The director delivered a detailed operations update to the board, saying staff coverage is arranged while she is out of the office and that supervisors and temporary staff will handle day‑to‑day work. She highlighted outreach efforts with youth in Baltimore County that produced a large number of voter registration and election judge applications.
“This week we received the largest number of both voter registration applications and election judge applications,” the Director said, adding that the office plans to partner with the county agency for future outreach and expects stronger retention if new judges begin serving at a younger age.
The director described several readiness items: completion of battery charging and an equipment inventory due by June 30; a pilot risk‑limiting audit (RLA) using Arlo software that produced no variance; and ongoing staff training so the office can scale processing of mail‑in, provisional and day‑of ballots. “We completed the pilot test risk limiting audit … and there was no variance,” the Director said.
She also noted a recent surge in registration activity since the last meeting — nearly 13,000 online transactions plus more than 1,000 paper applications, leading to about 14,000 voter notification cards mailed — and said the office is evaluating changing its reporting cadence to better surface those short‑term shifts.
On language access, the Director said Baltimore County meets the new requirement to provide voter information in English and Spanish online and will post both English and Spanish versions of key documents, linking to state PDFs where available. She said the office already provides translated materials and has created a Spanish practice guide for voters.
The director closed by summarizing personnel and logistics updates: new polling‑place contracts (including a return to a prior site repurposed under new ownership), upgrades to radios and other equipment, and recruitment to refill temporary positions that two staff accepted as full‑time county hires.
The board did not take action on these operational items; the Director said she will distribute the finalized disaster recovery and emergency operations document at the April meeting and will send any new state election laws to the board after the legislative session concludes.
