Some Anne Arundel County voters opened their sample ballots in the mail only to find the packet cut short — missing the final two pages entirely. Those pages covered statewide referendum Questions 2 and 3 along with county Questions A through C, leaving recipients without key information just weeks before Election Day.
The Maryland State Board of Elections said the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections failed to include the last two ballot pages before the packets went out, according to WBAL-TV. The outlet reported that the mailers simply did not include the last two pages as intended, cutting voters off from details on five separate ballot questions in one swoop.
Those omitted statewide questions were not minor footnotes. Questions 2 and 3 are proposed constitutional amendments dealing with temporary appointments to the Commission on Judicial Disabilities and congressional redistricting, according to FOX Baltimore. The same report noted the state board's warning that the omission may cause voter confusion or frustration over their ballot.
State Orders a Fast Fix
Maryland State Administrator Jared DeMarinis directed the county board to issue corrected specimen ballots to all affected voters on an expedited basis, per TheBayNet. The county board also planned to notify affected voters directly and post a link to an online sample ballot that includes the missing pages, the same report said.
Officials were careful to stress what these mailers actually are. As the article notes, these are not ballots that voters use to cast their votes — they are informational specimens meant to preview what will appear when residents actually vote. That distinction matters, since the error does not affect anyone's ability to cast an actual ballot, only their ability to preview it ahead of time.
CBS News Baltimore also covered the mix-up, confirming that CBS News reported the sample ballots mailed to voters were missing the last two pages, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Not the Only County With Ballot Guide Trouble
Anne Arundel is not the only Maryland jurisdiction dealing with voter-facing printed material issues this cycle. The Montgomery County Board of Elections said in a statement it would thank voters who identified errors in its voter information guide and would correct them and provide accurate information to all voters, though the nature of those errors was not detailed in that statement.
Printed ballot errors have surfaced elsewhere in past elections too. In Pennsylvania in 2023, a Lancaster County printing error led officials to send voters replacement ballots with corrected wording and a sheet of instructions, according to AP News. Voters who received the erroneous version in that case were told to toss it and wait for the fixed one, a pattern not unlike the correction process now underway in Anne Arundel County.
