Talbot County Republicans say "No."
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Talbot County's Republican Central Committee is notifying citizens that the County's election Board is violating Maryland Law 10-201 and 10-202 for the upcoming Presidential election. Those laws require that equal numbers of election judges are appointed from the two main political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. Currently, Talbot County has 123 judges, 62 Democrats, 50 Republicans, and 11 unaffiliated. Two of the current judges are not residents of Talbot County.
Election Law:
The local board of elections must appoint at least four election judges to staff each precinct
having 200 or more registered voters, and two election judges to staff each smaller precinct. An
equal number of these judges must be selected from Maryland's majority party and its principal
minority party. 10-201 AG_Instructions_2010.pdf (maryland.gov)
Executive Director of the Election Board, Tammy Stafford, claims there are not enough Republican applicants for judges' positions. Yet, her assistant Donna Hacker verifies that there are twenty trained Republicans waiting to be appointed. An additional 15 Republicans have applied due to recruiting efforts, but 14 were told "all positions are filled," even though the Talbot County Board of Elections site is STILL advertising for judges. The following came from the Talbot County Board of Elections website TODAY, September 27, 2024:
When the issue was brought before the Talbot County Board of Elections, member Denise Lovelady told the Board that they were not following State law. She proposed a motion to Notify the Public of this disparity and to give assurance that the Talbot County Board of Elections would follow state law. Democrats Susan Mackinnon, Barbara Perry, and Walter Black voted NO to the motion. Republican Gugy Irving voted "present."
One of the reasons given by the Election Board is that they don't have "time" to train these election judges. This seems disingenuous since part of the training can be done online and any in-person training takes minimal time. And, it seems the Board of Elections has postponed the training long enough to assure they cannot train judges before voting starts.
Talbot County Council Members Chuck Callahan and Dave Stepp attended the Board of Elections meeting on September 24, 2024 and were concerned about the Board's refusal to follow State Law. At Tuesday's meeting of the County Council, Stepp proposed that the council send a letter reminding Stafford to follow state law. Callahan supported that idea.
However, other Council members, Peter Lesher, Lynn Mielke, and Keasha Haythe voted against the idea. Lesher stated that he didn't want to tell Stafford what to do stating, "I'm not sure I could substitute my lower level of expertise here for the judgement and command of the data that Board of Elections has to take action."
Mielke implied that Stepp and Callahan wanted to meddle in the election by sending the letter, which would not have any legal consequences to the director. She also stated that Stepp had "tainted our elections" a somewhat slanderous allegation regarding her fellow council person.
Haythe stated that she had heard no citizen complaints about the problem.
Lesher and Haythe are Democrats, Mielke is allegedly a Republican.
Stepp closed by saying, "Follow the law, do your job, be transparent and train more Republican election judges immediately and have them ready to work our general election."
