Maryland ballot blunder sparks House GOP probe ahead of primary

FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans are demanding answers after a recent mail-in ballot error resulted in some Maryland voters receiving primary ballots for the wrong party.

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and Vice Chair Laurel Lee, R-Fla., sent a letter to the Maryland State Board of Elections (SBOE) on Tuesday scrutinizing the ballot-printing snafu and whether the state has adequate safeguards in place to verify the accuracy of mail-in ballots.

The letter came after the SBOE disclosed last week that a vendor error led to an unverifiable number of Maryland residents receiving incorrect mail-in ballots ahead of the state’s June 23 gubernatorial primary election. Officials said they would resend ballots to more than 500,000 voters who could have been affected and claimed that proactive measures were in place to ensure that only one vote would be counted.

The GOP lawmakers said additional transparency from the state elections board is warranted.

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"While the SBOE is taking precautions to void the initial batch of ballots, distributing over half a million additional replacement ballots risks creating immense logistical strain and potentially undermines public confidence in the nation’s elections," they wrote. 

The House Administration Committee Republicans asked Maryland State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis to respond to the committee’s questions by June 9.

Reps. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., Greg Murphy, R-N.C., Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., Mike Carey, R-Ohio, and Mary Miller, R-Ill., also signed the letter.

DeMarinis has defended the state’s response to the vendor error and its mail-in voting practices, arguing they are "an integral facet of the electoral process." 

"With over 500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in their integrity or accuracy; that is why I have arranged the sending of replacement ballots," he said in a statement last week.

DeMarinis said Friday that replacement ballots had started to be mailed. 

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The mail-in ballot issue has attracted the scrutiny of President Donald Trump, who has called on the Justice Department to investigate Maryland’s State Board of Elections. The president also called Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., "corrupt" in a post on Truth Social and asserted, without evidence, that the ballot error was done intentionally to benefit Democrats.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has also sharply criticized the ballot printing error as "election mismanagement" and deployed its election integrity unit.

"In response, the RNC and Maryland GOP are expanding our Protect the Vote operations with voter hotlines, legal oversight, and voter education statewide," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters previously told Fox News Digital.

Trump has long sought to restrict no-excuse mail-in voting and signed an executive order earlier this year to crack down on the practice.

Spokespersons for the state elections board and Moore did not immediately respond to a request for comment.