One local group says they don't want any issues with voting in Baltimore come Election Day in November, and they're asking for civil rights groups to help in order to prevent any problems.
Several people with the organization say this is all in response to ballot issues during the primary election in April.
Bad ballot distribution and precincts opening up late are just some of the issues they want to fix. While a judge threw out a lawsuit asking for a re-do of the primaries, the group says it's not giving up to get what they call an accurate election.
"I think Baltimore again would be in the national spotlight and not for the positive, but for the worst," Hassan Giordano, a spokesman for VOICE, said.
He says another election filled with what he calls mistakes would be disastrous for the city.
"The irregularities haven't gone away. We know what happened in the April primaries. We suspect with even more voters coming out in the November elections that if the proper training hasn't been put in place, that we'll see even more irregularities," Giordano said.
He and others part of the Voters Organized for the Integrity of City Elections are asking civil and civic groups to help provide monitors to prevent several errors that happened the last time -- including incorrect ballot distribution and polling locations opening late.
"As far as election judges, I can't control them all I can do is recruit them and try to recruit enough where they'll be able to cover each precinct. We have done that now we just hope that they show up," Armistead Jones, the elections director for the city, said.
Jones says he and his staff are ready for the upcoming elections.
"We train pretty close to 3,000 judges. Our problem in the past, not only in the city, is after that training the drop off can be very high at times so we try to recruit more than we know we need so we can get to the number that we do need," he said.
Jones calls it a safe measure to cover for what happened the last time. Giordano says he wants volunteer monitors to add on to that.
"We're going to try our best to be there with a phone number for people who find issues, for people to text right away or call right away and say we have an issue at so and so polling location. We need this dealt with," Giordano said.
Then, there will be a fair election, he said.
So far more than two dozen people have signed up to monitor different polling locations throughout the city. Giordano says his goal is to have 100-150 people at minimum to safeguard against what happened in April.
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