A volunteer for 13th District city council write-in candidate Shannon Sneed says problems with voting machines – and the unwillingness of staff to help voters – caused eight to 10 people who came to a polling place in East Baltimore to leave without voting this morning. “There was some technician they needed to get to fix the problem, but they couldn’t find him,” said Renold B. Smith, a retired U.S. Postal Service manager who was volunteering for Sneed.
Smith, who said he had been at Tench Tilghman Elementary/Middle School since before the polls opened, said he tried helping one woman who was particularly concerned about the problem. He said she told him the machine “just wouldn’t let her do a write-in.”
“She said she works at Hopkins and would have to leave to get to work,” Smith said. “She told them she might come back at lunch.”
Write-in voting is an issue of special concern at 13th District polling places because political newcomer Sneed has been mounting a vigorous write-in campaign there, after coming just 43 votes shy of beating incumbent Warren Branch.
Full Article: Officials confirm machine problems hampered write-in voting in 13th District | Baltimore Brew.