Larry Hogan is spending taxpayer money to make voting harder and less reliable | READER COMMENTARY

In recent weeks, Gov. Larry Hogan has worked to reinforce his “good Republican” image by contrasting his record on the pandemic with President Trump’s. But when it comes to making voting in November safe and fair, his actions still reflect the old GOP strategy: make voting easy for well-to-do and able-bodied conservatives, and difficult for people working two jobs, single parents and the disabled (”Baltimore election director says Maryland’s plan to vote in person in November is a ‘setup for failure,‘” July 16).

In the primaries, ballots were automatically mailed to voters, and 97% of voters used them. Rather than work to fix whatever problems afflicted that hastily constructed system, Mr. Hogan insists on scrapping it.

He has decided to put the burden back on voters. They must take the initiative to request a mail ballot well before Election Day, watch for it in the mail, and if it arrives, mail it back. The streamlined, efficient system that worked in the primary elections and several other states will be abandoned.

Mr. Hogan’s decision will cost taxpayers millions of dollars (partly from the City’s budget) to set up and run hundreds of precinct polling places on election day.

Cost isn’t the only problem. The city is struggling to find the necessary poll workers and polling locations. Fears of COVID-19 will keep volunteer staff and voters away. Senior centers are refusing to serve as polling places.

Polling places also need distinct sets of ballots depending on their location. Places that have too few ballots or the wrong ballots will have gaps in their results that can’t easily be fixed.

Mr. Hogan has been warned by local election officials, but he isn’t listening.

Why was Mr. Hogan willing to promote efficiency in the primaries, but won’t do so in the November general election? It would be so much more efficient to just mail the correct ballot to everyone.

One can only surmise he realizes that primaries don’t threaten GOP losses to Democrats, but general elections do. And once people see how easy voting by mail is, they will insist on it in the future.

I hope voters demand automatic voting by mail. And if that fails, remember Mr. Hogan’s wrongheaded decision when election day and night turn out chaotic, and losers claim the election results are unreliable.

Sam Bleicher, Baltimore

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