Justice Department notifies Maryland of Civil Rights probe into ballot scandal

Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon on Friday notified Maryland that the Justice Department was investigating its distribution of 500,000 mail-in ballots.

The Maryland State Board of Elections this week confirmed that it had erroneously distributed mail-in ballots to members of the wrong party for the upcoming primaries. But it has denied wrongdoing. 

Dhillon asked Maryland State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis to preserve "true and correct copies" of all ballots, mailing records and other corrective actions the state has taken for the June 3 gubernatorial election.

"It's the wrong time to send voters the wrong ballots," Dhillon warned in a post on X. "This Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights will not let Maryland's mail-in ballot mistakes go unnoticed!"

Maryland officials said Monday they will send out replacement ballots this week for voters who received ballots for the wrong political party ahead of the primaries.

The state said the mistake only impacted voters who received a ballot before May 14, but all mail-in voters will be sent a replacement ballot, plus a postcard explaining the mistake and requesting they destroy the previous ballot and envelope.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.