Frostburg City election staff approve operating procedures, to publish filed candidate list on city site

Frostburg City election staff and board members on a March meeting at 4:30 p.m. approved updated standard operating procedures for the upcoming election, confirmed how mail and questionable ballots will be handled, accepted a new printing vendor for ballot mailings, and agreed to post a filed-candidates list on the city’s election webpage with a clarifying disclaimer.

The meeting opened with discussion of a redesigned tally sheet intended to print on one page. Patrick, who presented the proposed sheet, said he reduced columns and centered numbers so the form will fit and be easier to fold and staple to ballot sacks. Board members recommended keeping the ballot order consistent with the ballot itself and adding a field or column to record "no vote" tallies so vote totals can be reconciled against total ballots.

Patrick also told the group that voter-oath envelopes will carry a city-identified numeric sequence (approximately 1 through 4,200) alphabetized from the final list to speed processing and help staff confirm original envelopes versus replacement ballots. The board clarified that any questionable ballots (for example, double votes or ballots with a name written on them) will be set aside in their envelopes during counting and addressed by the full group; they noted the city code (cited in the packet as section 3.3) requires a unanimous vote to invalidate a ballot.

On mailing, staff reported the prior vendor had been bought out and was unresponsive; staff contacted MPB Print and Sign Superstore in Morgantown, which provided a quote under expected costs and said it could handle printing, mailing and proofs. The board approved proceeding with a responsive vendor and asked staff to place that vendor’s name in the operating procedures and follow up with contract details and proofs.

A motion to approve the standard operating procedures as presented (including the vendor update) was moved and seconded and the board recorded approval in the meeting. The transcript does not include a detailed roll-call tally for that vote.

The board also considered whether to post a list of individuals who have filed for candidacy on the Frostburg election page. Members compared local practice to Cumberland and the state, and discussed concerns that publishing filing information could be misread as a preliminary ballot or invite strategic filings. The group recommended a careful disclaimer stating that listed individuals have filed but are not yet guaranteed to appear on the ballot and avoiding language that would invoke the ethics commission as a gatekeeper. Staff proposed listing currently filed names alphabetically under each office without showing filing dates; an informal poll showed general support. Staff said she would make the page live and post a Facebook reminder one week ahead of the filing deadline.

What happens next: staff will update the tally sheet and the operating procedures to reflect the agreed formatting and the replacement vendor, post the candidates page on the city election site with the agreed disclaimer, and follow up with proofs and a vendor quote. The group scheduled a follow-up meeting after the ethics commission completes its review of candidate forms, with a planned in-person meeting on March 26.

Quotes and key lines from the meeting include Patrick’s presentation of the tally sheet changes and vendors, board members’ procedural clarifications on handling questionable ballots, and staff’s commitment to publish the filed-candidates list and notify the board when it goes live.