BALTIMORE– Starting Thursday, polling places across Maryland are welcoming eligible voters for in-person early voting.
In a tweet, Governor Larry Hogan state “regardless of who you are voting for or your party affiliation… exercising your right to vote is important.”
WJZ spoke to officials at the Westside Skill Center in West Baltimore about the changes that were made after the July primaries and what voter need to know for a smooth voting process.
State officials say there was a strong turnout for the primary so they’re expecting similar results for the general.
Baltimore City officials are continuously working to avoid some of the issues seen during the primaries. City Election Director, Armstead Jones, stated he believes redistricting is to blame for the bulk of the problems experienced in July.
“The election process is not a perfect system in lots of various ways.”, Jones said. “Every 10 years there’s redistricting that occurs around the state and Baltimore city was not the only jurisdiction that had issues with redistricting. We normally have two to three months to do it, we had two and a half weeks.”
Polls are open 7 a.m. and close tonight at 8 p.m.; every day until next Thursday, November 3rd. If you are voting early in person, election officials are asking voters to be patient as many jurisdictions are still facing a shortage of election judges.