It urges residents to make sure they are registered to vote.
Frederick, Md (KM) The Frederick County Board of Elections is reminding citizens to make sure they are registered to vote. Election Director Barbara Wagner says residents can sign up by going on line, coming out to the local Elections Office and signing up; or they can request an application be mailed to their homes. Citizens can also register through the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration and the Department of Social Services.
Wagner says her staff has been out at various events, getting people registered to vote. “Like at last weekend, people are out at the Fair helping people register to vote. We were out at In the Streets helping tons of people register to vote and giving them information on the upcoming presidential election. So people are getting that information through all kinds of ways,” she says.
The advance deadline to register is October 15th. But Wagner says citizens can still sign up to vote during early voting and on election day. “We still do have people that come in on one of the early voting days, or on election day to register at one of our sites,” she says. “It’s not that many because we do have so many accessible ways.”
Early voting takes place from Thursday, October 24th through Thursday, October 31st. Wagner says early voting sites will be at the Prospect Center, Thurmont, Urbana and Middletown. General election day is Tuesday, November 5th. The polls will be open from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM each day.
Even if you are registered to vote, and haven’t changed your address or party affiliation in years, Wagner says it’s still a good idea to make sure all of your information is up to date. “If you have moved, you want to make sure your address has changed. If you’ve changed your name for any reason, you want to make sure your name has changed. And if you decide to change your party affiliation, we can accommodate those too. But you would always want to check to make sure that information is correct,” Wagner says.
Wagner says mail-in ballots will be going out very soon. “Overseas ballots will be going out on Saturday, the 21st of September. And then on 23rd, we will have our domestic ballots going out,” she says.
Starting this week, Wagner says drop boxes will be set up at ten locations around Frederick County. They will be ready to accept ballots starting on Monday, September 23rd. “So we’ll have the cameras, we’ll have monitoring capabilities all ready to go by Monday, September 23rd. So anybody who wants to vote early and get it in the drop box, is able to do so.,” she says.
Wagner says 56 locations will be set up on Tuesday, November 5th for citizens who want to vote in person on election day.
By Kevin McManus