The state is trying to look like they are combating voting fraud by examining electronic tampering, enhancing audits and creating rules for social media. They should already be doing the tampering examinations and auditing, which was found to be deficient by experts, for several reasons. The most important is if the election were audited and found to have a problem, the results could not be overturned. And social media, do you really look at those ads?
Unfortunately, their efforts and your money are being wasted, as usual. Voter fraud is probably rampant in the state. Maryland’s election administrator refused to give publicly available voter information to federal authorities investigating voter fraud (“Maryland elections officials deny Trump request for voter data,” July 4). Is there another reason beyond obvious voter fraud for not releasing the information? Currently, there is a lawsuit in Pennsylvania for 100,000 known non-citizens registered to vote there. How many are in Maryland, especially since we are essentially a sanctuary state? We have no idea because we don't even look.
In Maryland, you can register and fill out an absentee ballot online. Anyone can do this. So if your neighbor knows you don't vote, they could register and vote for you. It would never be discovered. An expert from George Washington University has told the election board this and claims nothing has been done.
Absentee ballots to nursing homes should be sent to the closest family member, not to the staff of the home. Dead people and people who no longer live here should be purged from the rolls. After all, Montgomery County has more registered voters than people over 18 years old. How do you explain that? This is not required by the state or the election board. Yet Annapolis is going after electronic tampering (“After Russian tampering, Maryland officials look to improve election defenses,” Feb. 23).
Without getting control of who votes and our almost non-restrictive absentee balloting, the state is just wasting time and money. Does it really matter if the Russians tamper with the elections if non-citizens, dead people and non-absentees are "voting?" If you want your elections to be fair, you need to know who is voting. Without voter ID, our system is inherently corrupt. Are they really serious when they say the poor don't have state IDs? Who does not have a state-issued ID? You need to produce ID for cigarettes, liquor, at airports, and to return items to many stores.You have to produce an ID to get a senior discount! For those few who don't own one, give them one at no cost. Now what is the argument? It can be a question asked when registering to vote. "Do you have one of the following IDs? If no, check this box."
My suggestion to Maryland citizens who agree that there should be voter ID is to show your identification at the upcoming primaries and in November. Show Annapolis that you want your vote to count.
Steven Pinson, Baltimore