{"id":13241,"date":"2026-05-27T23:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/27\/trump-distorts-marylands-primary-ballot-mix-up-to-attack-mail-in-voting-factcheck-org\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:22:13","slug":"trump-distorts-marylands-primary-ballot-mix-up-to-attack-mail-in-voting-factcheck-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/27\/trump-distorts-marylands-primary-ballot-mix-up-to-attack-mail-in-voting-factcheck-org\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Distorts Maryland\u2019s Primary Ballot Mix-up to Attack Mail-in Voting – FactCheck.org"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maryland election officials are mailing replacement ballots to voters after a vendor error led to some voters receiving a mail-in ballot for the wrong political party\u2019s primary in June. However, in criticizing the mix-up, President Donald Trump distorted the facts to claim that 500,000 \u201cfake,\u201d \u201ccorrupt\u201d and \u201cillegal\u201d ballots had been mailed to ensure \u201cDemocrats win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original ballots have been \u201cvoided\u201d and can\u2019t be cast, state election officials said. Maryland also has a closed primary<\/a>, which means Democratic and Republican voters may vote only in the party primary for which they are registered.<\/p>\n

In response to Trump, Maryland\u2019s top elections official posted<\/a> on social media that \u201cno fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed.\u201d Also, while more than 500,000 people requested<\/a> mail-in ballots for the state\u2019s primary election<\/a> on June 23, election officials said it\u2019s unknown how many individuals were mistakenly mailed ballots to vote in the primary of the wrong party.\u00a0The vendor error affected ballots mailed to voters prior to May 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is possible only a small number of voters received the wrong ballot, and most voters received the correct ballot, all voters must be issued a replacement ballot. This action of resending ballots maintains the integrity and security of mail-in voting,\u201d the Maryland State Board of Elections said in a May 15 statement<\/a> announcing the error made by<\/a> Taylor Print & Visual Impressions Inc., the vendor that printed the state\u2019s mail-in ballots.<\/p>\n

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A voter puts a ballot in the ballot drop box at the Silver Spring Civic Center in Maryland on July 19, 2022. Photo by Robb Hill for the Washington Post via Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

But news of the ballot mistake prompted Trump to respond a few days later with an attack on voting by mail. The president has a history<\/a> of making false and unsupported claims about mail-in voting<\/a>, including after<\/a> he lost<\/a> the 2020 election<\/a>. Last year, he said<\/a> he would \u201clead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,\u201d and he has pushed<\/a> for passage of a version of the Save America Act that would eliminate mail-in voting with limited exceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe the worst of all is the mail-in ballots,\u201d Trump said while talking about election integrity at a May 18 White House event<\/a> on healthcare affordability. \u201cAs you know, in Maryland, 500,000 fake ballots were sent out. When they were caught, they said, \u2018Oh, we\u2019ll pull them back.\u2019 And they issued 500,000 new ballots. And as you know, they never got the original ballots back. So, there are a million ballots out there. Many of them went to Democrats and it\u2019s a very serious thing.\u201d He went on to claim that \u201cillegal\u201d and \u201cfraudulent\u201d ballots had been mailed to voters.<\/p>\n

That same day, in a post on Truth Social, the president wrote<\/a> that because \u201cmany of these Ballots went to Democrats \u2026 any Republican running in Maryland doesn\u2019t have a chance!\u201d He then blamed it all on Wes Moore, Maryland\u2019s Democratic governor, who is running<\/a> for reelection. \u201cHe allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win,\u201d Trump said, adding that he would ask the U.S. attorney general and the Department of Justice to investigate what happened.<\/p>\n

Three days later, in remarks on May 21, Trump again said<\/a> that Maryland \u201cgot caught with 500,000 mail-in ballots that were corrupt,\u201d and he told the public not to believe that the error was due to a vendor \u201cmistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump may not believe it, but that doesn\u2019t mean that\u2019s not what happened.<\/p>\n

On May 18, in another statement<\/a> about the mailings, the Maryland State Board of Elections explained the situation further:\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Maryland State Board of Elections, May 18:<\/strong> Beginning on May 9, 2026, mail-in ballots were sent out to all voters that requested them on or before May 6, 2026. While some voters may have received the correct ballot and party affiliation as they are registered, an error in the coding with SBE\u2019s mail-in ballot vendor resulted in some voters receiving the wrong party ballot. Since the mail-in vendor was unable to accurately identify who received correct ballots and who did not receive correct ballots, SBE determined the only course of action to ensure the integrity and security of mail-in voting was sending all voters who requested a mail-in ballot by mail a new ballot.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

State election officials said that only ballots that were mailed prior to May 14 were affected, and those ballots were not \u201cfake,\u201d nor \u201cillegal,\u201d according to Jared DeMarinis<\/a>, the state administrator of elections in Maryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt bears repeating that no fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed,\u201d DeMarinis said in a May 18 post<\/a> on X. \u201cThe wording in President Trump\u2019s continued posts about Maryland\u2019s elections creates an environment of misinformation on a voting right. Mail-in voting is not a partisan issue. Mail-in voting is legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeMarinis also clarified in his X thread that elections in Maryland are \u201cadministered, supervised and managed\u201d by him and the bipartisan State Board of Elections \u2013 not the governor, to whom Trump assigned blame.<\/p>\n

State election officials said<\/a> that affected voters would be notified and that they should discard or destroy the first ballot they received and vote using the replacement ballot. The new ballots will be mailed by May 29 in an envelope that says \u201cREPLACEMENT BALLOT INSIDE,\u201d the SBE said.<\/p>\n

Importantly, the election officials also said that there is no risk of double voting as the original ballots that were mailed out have already been \u201cvoided\u201d in the voter registration system. That includes any inaccurate ballots that voters already may have mailed to local elections offices before the mailing mistake was caught.<\/p>\n

On a page answering frequently asked questions<\/a> about the replacement ballots, the SBE said: \u201cElection officials have safeguards in place to ensure that only one ballot can be accepted per voter. Every return envelope\/oath has a unique identifier to ensure that a voter can only vote one ballot. SBE has implemented additional safeguards to ensure only the correct ballot is counted for each voter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, because the only ballots that were affected are for the June primary election, Trump\u2019s suggestion that \u201cany Republican running in Maryland doesn\u2019t have a chance\u201d in the November general election for governor is false.<\/p>\n

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Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through\u00a0our \u201cDonate\u201d page<\/a>. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maryland election officials are mailing replacement ballots to voters after a vendor error led to some voters receiving a mail-in ballot for the wrong political party\u2019s primary in June. However, in criticizing the mix-up, President Donald Trump distorted the facts to claim that 500,000 \u201cfake,\u201d \u201ccorrupt\u201d and \u201cillegal\u201d ballots had been mailed to ensure \u201cDemocrats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}