Voters in line at Barclay Elementary/Middle School, one of the voting centers in Baltimore City, on Election Day, Nov. 3. Photo by Elizabeth Shwe.
“Unprecedented” is a word that’s been used by election officials, advocates and lawmakers alike to describe the 2020 presidential election ? and that phrase rang true on Tuesday.
More than 2 million Marylanders had cast their ballots before Election Day as the state emphasized early and mail-in voting. As of 10 p.m., 475,249 voters had cast their ballots in person on Tuesday, with some still trickling into voting centers in Calvert County.
In many of the state’s large jurisdictions, Election Day wait times were brief and lines were short throughout the day. In smaller counties like Calvert, however, voters stood in line for hours after polls closed at 8 p.m.
The coronavirus pandemic left election officials scrambling to come up with a workable in-person voting system earlier this year. Faced with election worker shortages and worries about the spread of COVID-19, the State Board of Elections eventually decided to open larger, fewer in-person voting centers for Election Day voting.
