Dead people voted in Maryland's Nov. 8 election, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey charged yesterday.
The defeated candidate for governor, who is in the midst of an intensive investigation of voting records that she hopes will prove the election was stolen from her, made the charge before an audience of conservative legislators in Washington and then repeated it for reporters outside her Cockeysville headquarters.
"We found irregularities," she said. "Did dead people vote? Yes."
Mrs. Sauerbrey, a state delegate from Baltimore County who lost the election to Democrat Parris N. Glendening by 5,993 votes out of 1.4 million cast, also said her post-election inquiry has revealed that some voters listed abandoned buildings as their addresses and that others voted who should have been purged from the voter rolls long ago.
"We know that vacant buildings -- buildings that were vacant a long time -- were used as addresses where people were registered to vote and voted," she said.
Mrs. Sauerbrey declined to give any specifics.
Gene M. Raynor, the state elections administrator, said he knew of no vote being cast in the name of a dead person. He said if he did, he would have called for an investigation by the state special prosecutor.
Mr. Raynor also characterized Mrs. Sauerbrey's charges as irresponsible because she has not presented any concrete evidence of fraud to a local election board.
State officials certified the election results Wednesday. Mr. Raynor said the court system is now the only avenue available for Mrs. Sauerbrey to challenge the election.
She has until Dec. 27 to decide whether to file a lawsuit contesting the election.
Mrs. Sauerbrey first made the allegation about dead people voting in a speech before a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national group of conservative lawmakers that she once headed.