The Games They Play

No matter how The Capital tries to spin early voting as a good thing for Anne Arundel Republicans, it just does not pass the smell test.

I am not going to question the constitutionality of these laws; I am sure that there are constitutional arguments both for and against early voting, and early voting has been used in other states for years. Oregon went as far as switching to all vote-by-mail elections in 1998. The legality is not the point, nor is it the problem.

The problem is with the history of our fair state. Due to the machinations of the Democratic General Assembly, the preponderance of early-voting precincts are in (surprise!) heavily Democratic precincts. Given Maryland's notorious history with shady elections, the last thing we need are to have mechanisms in place that could bring the validity of election results into question.

The overall Democratic strategy of messing around with election laws might give one the impression that Maryland Democrats have no confidence in their chances to defeat Governor Ehrlich, retain Paul Sarbanes' seat, or to increase their majority in the statehouse this November.