Dissent will NOT be Tolerated!

Maryland voters who requested paper ballots instead of touch-screen won't be counted

AP Wire - About 100 Maryland voters who requested paper ballots for the March primary because they did not trust the state's new touch-screen voting machines may never have their votes counted.

The provisional ballots they filled out during the primary election have been rejected by local elections boards, which concluded the ballots could not be used as an alternative to the machines.

"I was not told that my vote would not be counted. That is just plain wrong," one of the voters, Helen K. Kolbe, said at an administrative hearing Wednesday in Annapolis. "By any logic, my vote should be accepted, or quite simply, it is fraud and a stain on our electoral procedures."

But under state law, paper ballots can be used only if "the individual's name does not appear on the precinct register." State officials told The (Baltimore) Sun that county election judges erred in offering the paper alternative.

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