With early voting underway in Montgomery County, Board of Elections President David Naimon said Monday that turnout has been low so far.
But he noted that means lines are short and voters should take advantage of having little to no wait time to cast their ballots.
“There have been no significant problems. Things are going smoothly,” Naimon told MoCo360 in an interview Monday morning, which marked the fifth day of early voting for the May 14 primary in the county.
Several elected officials, including County Executive Marc Elrich (D), Council Vice President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4), councilmembers Evan Glass (D-At-large) and Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) have shared on social media that they voted early and encouraged constituents to do the same.
Voters who want to avoid the Election Day rush can cast their ballot at any of the county’s 14 early voting sites through May 9. According to Maryland State Board of Elections Data, 7,112 county voters had voted at an early voting center as of the close of business Sunday evening. Montgomery County is home to 680,831 eligible registered voters.
Each center will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Races on the ballot include those for U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, the Montgomery County Board of Education and judges for Montgomery County Circuit Court. Check out more on how to make a plan to vote here and find information on the candidates in the MoCo360 Voters Guide.
Naimon said there was zero wait time at several sites Monday morning, which makes morning an ideal time for voters to cast their ballots during early voting. Historically, the last two hours of the last day of early voting have brought long lines and wait times, he said..
The voting sites at the Silver Spring Civic Building, the Wheaton Library and Community Recreation Center, the Potomac Community Recreation Center and the Jane E. Lawton Community Recreation Center in Chevy Chase have experienced the highest volume of voters over the first four days of early voting, according to unofficial county elections board data. Voter turnout was lower on the two weekend days, which saw around 1,600 voters each day, than on the two weekdays, which each saw about 2,000 voters cast ballots.
Tuesday is the last day to request a mail-in ballot, and Friday is the last day to request an internet-delivered mail-in ballot that voters must print from their own computers. The elections board started canvassing mail-in ballots on April 21.
“We have been keeping up,” Naimon said.
He said the board has ended up canceling a number of scheduled canvass sessions because all received ballots had been processed.
If you applied for a mail-in ballot but decide you would rather vote early in-person, you will have to fill out a provisional ballot so officials can ensure you only voted once. Naimon suggested that as an alternative, you can fill out your mail-in ballot and turn it in at a drop-box at an early voting site if you don’t want to mail it.
