FOX45 News: Baltimore election leader omitted drop-box incidents from report, email shows

A Baltimore City Board of Elections leader tried to avoid mentioning a pair of drop-box incidents in a report to the board, an email shows.

FOX45 News obtained hundreds of emails on Tuesday as part of a public records request related to Baltimore City elections. Included in that request was an email sent by Elections Deputy Director Abigail Goldman before the monthly Baltimore City Board of Elections meeting in April.

The email, which was sent to board president Scherod C. Barnes, was a preview of the report Goldman was preparing to present to the board that evening. Goldman told Barnes she knew about two separate incidents involving mail-in ballot drop boxes placed in the city.

“One was knocked over by a delivery truck but picked up right away by the same drive [sic]. This was at the achievement academy [sic],” Goldman wrote. “The other was a [sic] Morgan State. The camera went off line [sic] and when [the security company] sent a crew to look at it, there appeared to be missing bolts from it.”

Goldman then told Barnes her intended next steps.

“I will report it at the meeting but I did not want it in writing in the report,” Goldman said.

Goldman omitted any mention of the incidents in her leadership report, as she said in her email. The only mention of the ballot box incidents was a brief entry in the board’s published meeting records.

“Drop boxes: Deployed fully and there were two issues that came up at Morgan (a bolt was taken from the camera) and at Achievement Academy where a truck hit the drop box and knocked it over,” the Baltimore City Board of Elections meeting record said.

Goldman responded to FOX45 News’ requests for more information on Friday.

“I reported these incidents to the Board of Elections at the meeting of the Board on April 18, which was open to the public,” Goldman said. “There were no integrity concerns related to these drop boxes.”

Goldman said the ballots dropped off at the deployed boxes were collected daily from all relevant locations. Goldman added that all drop boxes were locked with unique seals applied each time they were opened to collect ballots.

She also said the missing bolts came from the security camera monitoring the drop box at Morgan, not the collection receptacle.

FOX45 News pressed Goldman further via email to explain why she said she wanted to avoid documenting these incidents when they occurred.

“I have no further comment,” Goldman said.

Baltimore City Board of Elections leadership has remained mostly silent when asked about this incident.

Armstead B.C. Jones, the city’s longtime elections director, was on family medical leave during the run-up to the 2024 primary elections and did not respond to multiple comment requests. Goldman was approved by the city’s election board to temporarily serve in Jones’ position earlier this year.

Republican-appointed member Maria Vismale said on Thursday night that the board was reviewing the April incidents based on questions from FOX45 News.

“The team is looking into this and we hope to get back to you soon with the information you requested,” Vismale said.

Democratic-appointed election board member Hope Williams responded to FOX45 News’ requests by pointing to Jones or board president Barnes for comment.

Barnes, a Democratic appointee, did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publishing this article.

National voter access group questions election broad transparency after incidents

Issue One, an election advocacy organization, spoke with FOX45 News regarding the Baltimore City ballot box incidents. The director of election protection for the group, Carah Ong Whaley, said there should be concern over the election official’s email and drop box incidents.

“I mean, these are things that need to be investigated immediately,” Ong Whaley said. “In my experience, that first starts at the local level, and appropriate officials at the state and federal level would need to be notified.”

Ong Whaley spent many years in leadership positions at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia before joining Issue One, according to her biography. As a leading civic engagement and voter education expert, she was appointed in Virginia to lead the state’s Complete Count Commission for the 2020 Census.

“When something like this does happen, we have to see urgent action to address it to ensure that every voter has the ability to cast their ballot and to make sure all ballot cast can be counted accurately,” Ong Whaley said.

Nearly 20 years of history

Well-documented questions about Baltimore City Board of Elections management have persisted for more than two decades.

Following the conclusion of the primary election in May, the city’s election board missed a provisional certification deadline established by the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Unorganized Election Day operations, late opening of polling locations, ballot chain of custody errors and ballot miscounting allegations were to blame for the city’s missed deadline.

On primary night, FOX45 News observed multiple chief election judges transporting critical ballot data, housed on thumb drives, from their assigned polling locations to the city’s election headquarters downtown. Poll workers informed FOX45 News on election night that technicians assigned to their locations failed to show up for hours to collect crucial electronic ballot data.

FOX45 News’s media partner, The Baltimore Sun, reported that a memory stick was missing for nearly a day after the primary elections. Additionally, the city’s election board mistakenly claimed an extra 584 votes were cast on Election Day.

This year’s failures were reminiscent of widespread management issues reported nearly a decade ago that catapulted the Baltimore City Board of Elections into the national spotlight.

The Maryland State Board of Elections decertified the 2016 primary election, leading to a precinct-by-precinct investigation. Duplicate ballot counting, paper ballot shortages and widespread poll worker staffing issues were discovered during the state investigation before the election was recertified.

“The State Board of Elections basically gives the directions to the local boards and leaves them out to dry,” Jones told the Washington Post in 2016. “They want to put me under the bus to try to blame me.”

Jones and Goldman assumed control of the city’s election board leadership a decade earlier, in 2006, after their predecessor mishandled many aspects of that year’s election process. Baltimore City Council records show that an emergency hearing over the same issues nearly 20 years later paved the way for Jones to become the election director.

“[T]o report to the City Council on the systematic problems that led to polling place difficulties that prevented, discouraged or delayed the participation of Baltimore City residents in the electoral process,” the Baltimore City Council resolution read. “[T]o present a comprehensive plan for remedies to address human or mechanical errors to ensure that similar, other or additional problems will not plague the upcoming general election.”

Transparency and management lead to voter confidence

Meanwhile, Ong Whaley explained to FOX45 News how the drop box incidents in April should have been handled.

“I think there is probably a certain amount of anxiety or fear about seeing something pop up in this regard,” Ong Whaley said. “Election officials have to show proactively they are redressing any challenges that come their way.”

My recommendation for increasing [voter] confidence is to increase transparency measures, open up the doors, invite the public in, show how elections are run, show how decisions are made,” Ong Whaley added.

Maryland Republican Party Chairwoman Nicole Beus Harris told FOX45 News that the negative public opinion about the city’s election process might be dampening voter enthusiasm at a local level.

“When it comes to the security of our elections, public perception is vital,” Beus Harris said. “So these officials should be going above and beyond to be transparent in order to dispel any skepticism of the legitimacy of our elections.”

The Baltimore City Democratic Party did not immediately respond to comment requests.