Valerie Ervin threatens to sue after Maryland election board declines to print new ballots

Rather than print new ballots before next month’s primary, Maryland elections officials decided Thursday to notify Democratic voters that former candidate Kevin Kamenetz has died and that a vote for him will be counted as vote for Valerie Ervin, his former running mate.

The state Board of Elections has said that it could not print new ballots to reflect Ervin’s last-minute gubernatorial candidacy largely because a single paper mill makes the only paper that Maryland’s voting machines can read.

Officials say they checked with the mill in upstate New York and it won’t have any more of the special paper available until the fourth week of June — that is, election week. Election officials had proposed the notification solution earlier this week to the Democratic candidates in the June 26 election, but were met with concerns about sowing confusion and of giving Ervin’s campaign additional attention.

Ervin said she is not satisfied with the state’s plan and is exploring a potential legal challenge.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ballot-paper-mill-20180523-story.html