Voting: Go midday
Katie Brown, director of the Baltimore County Board of Elections, has a piece of advice for Election Day: “Vote between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.”
Brown and elections officials are expecting voter turnout to hit 85 percent for the Nov. 4 election. Most voters are likely to show up at the polls in the morning, before work, or in the evening, as people make their way home.
Voter interest is high, Brown said. Baltimore county added more than 13,000 voters in the last two weeks of voter registration. The county now has more than 500,000 registered voters — the second highest total in Maryland behind Montgomery County.
So, long lines will likely be the rule for most precincts around the county.
The board will send out more than 2,650 electronic voting machines to precincts around the county. That figure includes an addition 150 machines bought by the state to help alleviate the expected large turnout, Brown said.
Some voters aren’t waiting until next week to stand in line.
“We have 20 people waiting in line and another 10 people voting right now by absentee ballot,” Brown said in a lunch-time phone interview today.
She said she is crossing her fingers for an otherwise uneventful Election Day.
“I just hope everyone will go and vote and be good,” she said.