Maryland has a nifty way of boosting voter turnout - by reducing the number of people registered to participate.

That is accomplished by leaving out "inactive" voters - those whose addresses cannot be verified - a practice state officials said is prescribed by law.

But those state officials concede that their method could hypothetically lead to turnouts of more of than 100 percent.

Robert J. Antonetti, Howard County's election administrator, said that not counting inactive voters makes no sense because some inactive voters do vote.

"In 2000, we had 600 [inactive] people vote," Antonetti said, noting he has not calculated how many voted last week. "We have a pile of them."

Alone among Maryland's 24 local elections board administrators, Antonetti counted Howard's County's 17,270 inactive voters when he calculated that 58.76 percent of Howard's voters exercised their constitutional right Nov. 5 (not counting absentees).

Yesterday, however, state elections officials raised Howard's unofficial turnout on the state board's Web site from 58.76 percent to 68.4 percent - second-highest in Maryland. Kent County was highest, at 69.5 percent, and Prince George's County had the lowest turnout, at 52.4 percent.

The statewide average turnout was calculated at 59.2 percent.

"To my knowledge, everybody's using only active voters," said Donna Duncan, director of the state board's election management division. "It's part of the [state legal] code that only active voters be used."

Possible unusual result

But that method could produce a bizarre result, Duncan said.

"Suppose by some miracle 100 percent come out [to vote], plus a couple of inactives show up," she said. "Voter turnout will be 110 percent."

About 241,000 inactive voters are listed statewide - 8 percent of the total.

Antonetti said registered voters are placed on the inactive list if a board mailing - such as a sample ballot - returns as undeliverable because the voter had moved without notifying the board. Under federal law, that voter will remain on the inactive list for two federal elections before being dropped from the rolls. If the person shows up two or four years later to vote, he or she may do so.

"You can't remove somebody for simple failure to vote," he said. "If they show up, they are allowed to vote."

11 percent of total

Howard's inactive roster is 11 percent of the county total of 158,835 registered voters.

Linda H. Lamone, state elections board administrator, said the state's method of calculating turnout is not about to change.

"We're not going to change the rest of the state because of what Mr. Antonetti thinks," she said. "The law is very explicit."

Although he disagrees with the state's way of calculating turnout, Antonetti said he is not planning to fight about it.

"Whatever they [state officials] want is fine," he said.