Dear Governor Hogan,
We are in the middle of a raging pandemic. COVID-19 has already killed more than 3,250 Marylanders and shows no sign of going away. Therefore, your decision to require Maryland voters to vote in person in November puts their lives at risk and the lives of poll workers. Simultaneously, your plan to require that voting by mail only occur through an application for an absentee ballot creates unnecessary and enormous confusion and will suppress voter turnout.
Allowing people to vote when ballots are mailed to them directly was an enormous success in April for the District 7 Congressional vote in Maryland and for the primary in June. As you know, Governor, a record number of people cast ballots in both of those elections without being unnecessarily exposed to the coronavirus. Meanwhile, there is no evidence that mailing ballots directly to voters will result in fraud. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare because of the checks and balances that our election processes have in place to prevent it.
We demand that you use your power to reverse course immediately and support a robust and direct vote-by-mail general election this November. This is the best way to secure our safety and the safety of our democracy.
