Maryland election officials are mailing replacement ballots to voters after a vendor error led to some voters receiving a mail-in ballot for the wrong political party’s primary in June. However, in criticizing the mix-up, President Donald Trump distorted the facts to claim that 500,000 “fake,” “corrupt” and “illegal” ballots had been mailed to ensure “Democrats win.”
The original ballots have been “voided” and can’t be cast, state election officials said. Maryland also has a closed primary, which means Democratic and Republican voters may vote only in the party primary for which they are registered.
In response to Trump, Maryland’s top elections official posted on social media that “no fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed.” Also, while more than 500,000 people requested mail-in ballots for the state’s primary election on June 23, election officials said it’s unknown how many individuals were mistakenly mailed ballots to vote in the primary of the wrong party. The vendor error affected ballots mailed to voters prior to May 14.
