A group that says it is committed to “stamping out fraud and inaccuracies in Maryland’s voter rolls” is in the process of trying to recruit hundreds of volunteers in an effort to launch a hand recount of ballots immediately after Election Day next month.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the “Maryland Voter Integrity Group” wants to have volunteers in each of the state’s 24 counties retabulate paper ballots and compare those results to readings from ballot-scanning machines in order to look for any discrepancies.
The recount would begin the morning after the Nov. 8 election, according to the group.
The idea would be for the group to select precincts at random in each county and then send a pair of volunteers — one Republican and one Democrat — to those precincts to recount the paper ballots together, focusing on the races for governor, attorney general, U.S. Congress and school board.
However, it doesn’t appear that any of that would be permitted under state law.
Recounts can only be requested by a candidate, and they can only be carried out after a race is certified and if the difference between the top two candidates is less than 5%.
Additionally, while observers are allowed to watch ballot canvassing in a public setting, they cannot actually touch ballots, as only staff members hired by local election boards are allowed to do that.
Even with those issues, the group claims it is trying to recruit 600 volunteers for the effort.
The Maryland Voter Integrity Group has previously raised concerns about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, echoing false claims made by former President Donald Trump.
Dan Cox, the state’s Republican candidate for governor, has aligned himself with Trump and has refused to say whether he would accept the outcome of next month’s election.
