Vote earlier rather than later
Early voting, absentee voting, provisional ballots. Who can blame someone, even a lawyer representing the 1st Congressional District candidate Frank Kratovil, for not being able to keep it all straight.
Teams of lawyers representing both Kratovil and Republican Andy Harris descended on the Baltimore County Board of Elections and election boards in 11 other counties to observe absentee ballot counts in the 1st Congressional District race.
During the count at the Baltimore County Board of Elections, the unidentified lawyer challenged a ballot because it appeared there was “an identifying mark” on the top of the ballot.
After much discussion, Katie Brown, the director of the county Board of Elections, explained the mark was part of official instructions that are pre-printed on all absentee ballots and not something that would identify a particular ballot of voter.
“Obviously, you’ve never voted absentee ballot,” Brown said to the lawyer.
“I have. I did it yesterday” he said, indicating he had voted on Nov. 5, the day after the election.
“I thought it was ‘vote early,’” a smiling Brown said before the lawyer could retract his misstatement.