Early Voting Ends Thursday, Nov. 3 Frederick County turnout lags behind

Update: Listen to Extra Talk with Katherine Heerbrandt on 1450 AM The Source. Katherine interviews Election Director Stuart Harvey at the Frederick Senior Center on the last day of early voting, Nov. 3.

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Marylanders can check “worried about a rigged election” off their list of concerns about the upcoming presidential election. In the eight days of early voting and on Nov. 8, election day, Maryland voters can rest easy in the knowledge that their vote is counted and protected, said Frederick County’s Election Director Stuart Harvey.

The process is incredibly secure,” Harvey said. “We’re not connected to the internet, but on a stand-alone server. We tested all the equipment to ensure it is accurate. It would be virtually impossible to rig this election in Maryland.”

Bipartisan teams work together to log unofficial results. Once the results are posted on the internet, someone could play around with the results, he said, but the real ones are in the stand-alone server.

Harvey’s department also registered new voters at the polls for the first time thanks to state legislation passed in 2013. As of Wednesday, Frederick County added

127 to its voter rolls. Also new this year are three additional early voting locations, including Frederick, Middletown, Thurmont and Urbana.

[Election Director Stuart Harvey at the Frederick Senior Center Early Voting Thursday, Nov. 3]

Harvey said most of the voting centers have processed voters within 20 minutes, but some places have heavier traffic than others. Thurmont and Middletown have little to no wait times, while Frederick and Urbana voters are standing in line.

As of Wednesday, the next to the last day of early voting, 12.91 percent of Frederick County voters cast a vote. In numbers that equates to 21,231 of 164,464 registered county voters.

Harvey predicts an 80 percent turnout in the final analysis, with absentee votes comprising 3 to 5 percent of the total votes cast.

Frederick County early voters are showing up in bigger numbers than in 2012, with a 9.5 percent turnout at this stage. Still, the percentage of registered voters taking advantage of early voting is behind most of the rest of the state.

The increase in early voting turnout is likely due to adding four days of early voting, three voting centers, and hours, Harvey said. Polls were open Thursday, Oct. 27 to Thursday, Nov. 3, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In 2012, the early voting center was open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and missed one of five scheduled days due to Hurricane Sandy, Harvey said.

As for the county breakdown, Frederick’s turnout is 2 to 3 percent below the state average of 15.6 percent. Leading the pack, with nearly 26 percent turnout is Talbot County, on the Eastern Shore. In the western part of the state, Allegheny has the lowest turnout at 6.3 percent.

All these numbers were updated Wednesday, Nov. 2 on the State Board of Elections website, http://www.elections.state.md.us/press_room/index.html.

For more polling insights, check out Extra Talk with Katherine Heerbrandt, Thursday at 5 p.m. on 1450 AM The Source, or listen at wthu.org. Stuart Harvey is the guest on the show, prerecorded Thursday morning at the Frederick Senior Center.

Thursday, Nov. 4 is the last day to cast your early vote:

Voting Centers

Frederick Senior Center, 1440 Taney Ave., Frederick, Maryland 21702

Thurmont Regional Library, 76 E. Moser Road, Thurmont, Maryland 21788

Urbana Regional Library, 9020 Amelung St., Frederick, Maryland 21704

Middletown VFD Activities Building, 1 Fireman's Lane, Middletown, Maryland 21769