MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — The counting of mail-in ballots has begun in Montgomery County in circumstances that election authorities are calling unprecedented.
Maryland has authorized election authorities to get started early because of the avalanche of mail-in ballots that are expected.
Montgomery County began the counting process at the Plum Gar Community Center in Gaithersburg Tuesday, in order to utilize the gymnasium to allow for proper ventilation and social distancing.
“It's a very labor-intensive process," Elections Board Secretary David Naimon said.
Naimon explained that mail-in ballots are being opened and verified by teams of volunteer elections judges. Each team of one Democrat and one Republican painstakingly check each other's work while socially distancing from each other at banquet tables, according to Naimon.
A bar code allows election authorities to keep track of who has voted while ensuring ballot secrecy.
The double-checked, verified ballots will then be counted by optical scanning machines and preserved in case of any questions.
“We'll be counting ballots as they come in so that we have a head start and be able to be ready for the avalanche that we expect as it gets closer to election day," Naimon said.
According to Elections Board spokesman Gilberto Zelaya, the county has responded to more than 300,000 mail-in ballot requests. A trickle of only about 17,300 voted ballots have been returned so far, Zelaya reported.
Naimon emphasized the unprecedented circumstances of the 2020 election.
“This is very unusual, not just because we're starting in October...but if you're voting by mail ... vote as early as you can so we can get this done," he said.
With President Trump raising questions about mail-in voting integrity and asking supporters to “watch very carefully," the Board of Elections has responded by providing live video streaming of counting to its website so that anyone can witness what’s going on.
“I have great confidence in our how this process has been run," Naimon said. "I think that anytime you have a process that has never been done before, you always worry about the glitches and you try to fix them as best as you can. But I have no doubt that we're going to have an honest process that's going to end up with the votes being counted correctly.”
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