Maryland HB 859: Election Law – Absentee Ballot Requests, Delivery, and Marking

Thank you for your consideration. I write to testify in favor of House Bill 859, Election Law – Absentee Ballot Requests, Delivery, and Marking, and urge a favorable report to improve elections and voting in Maryland.

For background, I am a professor at Howard University, and completed my doctoral studies in Technology Policy at MIT. My specialty includes technology management, and I began working on the technology of voting and fair elections in 2001 as part of the CalTech/MIT Voting
Technology Project1 following the problems that threatened the 2000 presidential elections. Our work warned about the need for major architectural changes for greater security if electronic voting were to be expanded. As a former co-chair of Montgomery County Chapter of the ACLU of Maryland, I led the committee dedicated to fair elections.