Early Voting Begins Thursday In Frederick County & The Rest Of Maryland

There are four early voting sites in Frederick County.

Frederick, Md (KM) Maryland residents can take advantage of early voting which gets underway on Thursday, May 2nd, and continues through Thursday, May 9th

Frederick County Election Director Barbara Wagner says there will be four polling place in the county for voters  to cast ballots in the Maryland Primary. They are  the Prospect Center, 585, Himes Avenue; the Middletown Volunteer , Fire Department Activities Building, 1 Fireman’s Lane; the Urbana Regional Library, 9020 Amuelung Street; and the Thurmont Regional Library, 76 East Moser Road. “So we’ve been preparing for those sites, getting our equipment ready to go in and training election judges. Over 900 election judges will be trained for election day, and we will use 700 of those judges in early voting alone for eight days,” she says.

Residents can vote at any one of the early voting centers. The hours will be from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM each day at each site, including Saturday and Sunday.

If you are not registered to vote, you can do so during early voting days, and vote on the day your register. “We have same day registration at early voting. And also for those people who have moved and have not changed their address, we can do an address change at early voting,” Wagner says.

Early voting has been around for a few years, and Wagner says it has proven to be very popular. “We probably get– between mail-in ballots, on election day and early voting,–we probably get a third of our voters through early voting. So it’s getting quite popular, yes,” she says.

For those who want to use mail-in ballots, Wagner says they have until May 7th to request one. . “A little bit over 29,000 people have requested a mail-in ballot. We’ve gotten probably a little bit less than half of those back as of now,” she says.

Residents who request a mail-in ballot can fill it out in the comfort of their own home, and send it  out through the US Postal Service, or place it in one of ten drop boxes around Frederick County. if mailed, these ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, May 14th 2024.

Primary election day in Maryland is Tuesday, May 14th. Wagner says there will be 55 polling places around the County for those who want to cast their ballots on that day. Polls will be open from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM.

By Kevin McManus