Frederick County Residents Turn Out For Early Voting

An official calls it ‘a great turnout.’Frederick, Md (KM) Early voting has been underway in Maryland since last Thursday, October 24th. Anthony Gutierrez, the Deputy Director of the Frederick County Elections Office, says a lot of people are taking advantage of casting their ballots before general election day, November 5th. “We’ve got a great turnout. Unfortunately, that does cause long lines, but voters have been very patient and very understanding. Lot of turnout at all four voting centers,” he saysHe provides some local numbers. “According to the state website, as of October 28th, 27, 600. Of course, that is increasing,”: Gutierrez says.Early voting continues on Wednesday October 30th, and Thursday, October 31st. Gutierrez says anyone who wants to take e advantage of early voting can come during a certain time of the day to avoid crowds. “We generally recommend between 10:00 and 3:00 to avoid that early morning and late evening rush when people get off from work,” he says.The hours  the polls will be open is  from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM.Gutierrez says security has been no problem, but police have been called to the polling places mostly due to traffic.. “When you have so many campaign people and so many cars, sometime the traffic gets backed up,” he says “And also, on the sidewalks and walkways, voters sometimes have a hard time getting through having so many people as part of the process in that one space.”Sometimes there have been problems between voters and individuals on site who are encouraging citizens  to vote for  their candidate. “Few voters do call and complain that they perceived that they’ve been yelled out. They sometimes use the word intimidated,” he said. “It’s a matter of balance between these very enthusiastic campaign supporters and voters who may be a little more sensitive to that.”The Maryland State Board of Elections is urging citizens to be aware of disinformation, and don’t believe material from unfamiliar e-mail addresses, social media posts, websites, phone numbers or text messages. The State Board has set up a portal on its website to receive complaints about disinformation. “We certainly want you to report that to the state so they can work with their state level law enforcement agencies to investigate and try and track it down at its source. things like that that might try and prevent groups from voting,”; says Gutierrez.The State Board of Elections website is www.elections.maryland.gov., and look for the disinformation portal.In Frederick County, the early voting sites are located at the Prospect Center in Frederick, the Thurmont Regional Library, the Urbana Regional Library and the Middletown Volunteer Fire Department Activities Building.By Kevin McManus