Mail-in ballots can be counted before Election Day, a judge in Maryland has ruled.
Maryland law states that officials can not start tabulating mail-in ballots until “8 a.m. on the Wednesday following election day.” But waiting that long would mean results could not be verified within 10 days after an election, as required by another law, Maryland Circuit Judge James Bonifant wrote in an 11-page ruling on Sept. 23.
Bonifant granted a request from the Maryland State Board of Elections, which claimed that a one-time suspension of the former law was required because of “emergency circumstances.”
Counting of mail-in ballots after primary elections earlier this year led to delayed election certifications, and without the ability to start counting absentee ballots before Election Day, local, statewide, and federal contests might not be certified until late December or January 2023, the board said in a statement in August as it filed a petition with the court….