Montgomery County elections officials urge residents to vote by mail sooner rather than later

Montgomery County begins counting mail-in votes Tuesday. Problem is, so far, they haven’t received nearly as many ballots as they’d hoped.

“There’s thousands of ballots on people’s coffee tables,” Montgomery County Board of Elections spokesperson Gilberto Zelaya said Monday evening. “Please don’t procrastinate. Send it back.”

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Zelaya explained that 293,377 mail-in ballots have already been sent out to county residents, but as of Saturday, just 17,317 voters – or a little more than five percent of those who’ve received their ballots – had sent them back, either via the mail or by putting them in a drop-box.

He said that’s a potential problem, especially if voters are hoping for results the night of the election.

Maryland voting guide: County-by-county information on how, when and where to vote

“It’s so much easier on our staff, on the board of elections, not just in Montgomery County but across the state, across the nation, if we start receiving the ballots sooner than later so we could spread out the love, we can spread out the 300,000 ballots that need to be canvassed as opposed to this trickling effect, and all of the sudden, the last week, like the first week of early voting, we get 150,000 ballots overnight,” Zelaya said.

It’s why people like him are begging residents to go ahead and vote, while early-birds like Vickie Rocha – who dropped her ballot off Monday in Silver Spring – were surprised so many others had not.

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“I’m surprised because people are so worried about the mail being effective,” she said.

If you want to watch the Montgomery County begin the canvassing process Tuesday morning at 10 a.m., more information can be found here.