Resolution 432, passed before the 2010 elections took place, changed who maintains the list of registered voters, handing over that responsibility to the Worcester County Board of Elections. The only other change made in writing allows voters to download absentee ballot applications online.
Town Manager Russell Blake said other changes suggested by the state's attorney report have been adopted in practice, even if they are not specifically called for in the new code.
"As I recall, the state's attorney report was a recommendation, and all recommendations basically have been followed in writing or in practice," Blake said. The changes not committed to code, he said, are still known to the city workers who run the elections.
Distinguishing marks
After candidate Stephanie Burke alleged her opponents manipulated the absentee voting process to win in 2009, then-State's Attorney Joel Todd conducted an investigation and issued a report. No criminal charges were filed, and Todd found no evidence that candidates or city workers engaged in fraud.
Still, the report said the city did not maintain an accurate list of absentee voters and noted that the way city workers marked each absentee ballot with a number allowed his investigators to determine which absentee voters cast which ballots, violating the principle of the secret ballot.
"Clearly, the ballot number enables a party to identify not only who the voter was, but how the voter voted," Todd wrote. "If a voter can be identified and interviewed for investigative purposes, it is possible that they could be identified and interviewed for any other legitimate or nefarious purpose.
Pocomoke's election code at the time said if there are any distinguishing marks on a ballot, then that ballot can be thrown out; thus, the report noted, the town's practice of numbering the ballots conflicted with its own code.
Resolution 432, the new election code, also states any distinguishing marks can discredit a ballot. The updated resolution does not specifically instruct election workers to write ballot numbers on outer envelopes and to not write numbers on the ballots themselves -- the change in practice Todd urged.
"The recommendation about not numbering ballots was incidental," Blake said in an interview. In the 2010 election, he said, Pocomoke conducted the election the way the report suggested: Ballot numbers were placed on the envelopes, not the ballots.
Carol Justice, the city clerk, said she was not aware individual ballots should not be marked with numbers, as had happened in 2009. She said she had not received formal election law training after 2009. Mark Tilghman, the attorney who began representing Pocomoke City in 2008, declined to be interviewed.
Jim Peck, director of research and information management for the Maryland Municipal League, said the sanctity of the ballot box is important in all elections.
"In general, there are broad efforts made to ensure when you vote it's between you and the voting booth," Peck said. The practice of numbering each ballot, he said, is "relatively unusual."
Ten officers and Department of Natural Resources employees spent the afternoon at the Matapeake pier on Kent Island cutting fish out of netting and preparing them for sale. The fish averaged 27 inches and about 10 pounds, with some 40-inch fish mixed in.
State officials, who have toughened penalties and stepped up prosecution, vowed to squeeze the poachers even harder. The public, in turn, is offering police tips as never before, said Joe Gill, DNR's deputy secretary and former assistant attorney general.
In "Extreme Makeover" style, the show will tear down the old structure when a group of Mack trucks paves a path directly through the home Monday morning in advance of the 106-hour build.
The program is expected to air at 8 p.m. on ABC-TV in several weeks. The Build Team will begin construction immediately following Monday's demolition and expect to be done in time for the Reveal to the family, after they return from a Disney vacation, on Saturday, Feb. 5.
By: Bill Lohmann
