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Md. electorate faces choice on early voting
While a contested constitutional amendment to legalize slot machine gambling is grabbing attention in Maryland, voters statewide will also decide a little-discussed ballot question on Election Day: Whether to allow early voting.
The proposed constitutional amendment would enable the General Assembly to enact legislation permitting qualified voters to cast their ballots up to two weeks before an election. About 30 states allow early voting, but a Maryland law that did so was struck down by the state’s highest court in 2006.
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Sen. Roy Dyson, D-St. Mary’s, said the longer voting period would give people who make long commutes to work more opportunity to vote—a problem in Dyson’s home county, which has become a Washington, D.C., suburb. A two-week voting period also would make inclement weather on Election Day less of a factor, Dyson said. On Maryland’s Feb. 12 primary, ice snarled traffic and prompted elections officials to keep the polls open an extra 90 minutes.
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