PRINCESS ANNE — A reduction in the number of polling places for the primary election has one Mt. Vernon resident alarmed about an erosion of public service for him and his neighbors in rural parts of the county.

In 2020 Maryland was under COVID-19 restrictions and for Somerset County that meant only three polling centers were open on election day. In February, the Board of Elections voted to consolidate polling places due to a worker shortage, and residents who are accustomed to voting at their neighborhood school, fire station or church will have farther to travel if they choose to wait until July 19.

John Barnette said his voting location was changed from the Mt. Vernon Volunteer Fire Company to Princess Anne Elementary School where Deal Island voters will also be directed to vote instead of the elementary school in their community.

Likewise Fairmount residents who voted in their local fire station will vote at Somerset County Technical High School (SCTHS), as will Marion area voters who previously cast ballots at Marion Baptist Church.

Mr. Barnette said he was also told there were fewer election judges available but took his concerns to the County Commissioners to see what they could do. “The public needs to know,” he said.

“I know I’m the only one who showed up here today but everybody I talk to in Mt. Vernon is not happy about this,” Mr. Barnette said, and he’s concerned about residents like those in Wenona who will be discouraged from driving to Princess Anne to vote in the primary. “People aren’t going to do it,” he said.

“What this is doing, and I don’t use the term lightly, is an indirect method of suppressing votes.”

Mr. Barnette said County Commissioners represent the voters, and the three in attendance acknowledged that they had not expressed their concerns to the election board about the changes because it’s not under their jurisdiction.

“Nobody wants to work,” said Commissioner Rex Simpkins, and Vice President Charles Laird, while also sympathetic, said the election board is its own entity, “and we don’t have any say over anything they do.”

As far any budgetary leverage the commissioners might have over the election board, Mr. Simpkins said the state tells the county what the expenses will be, “which shows how much say we’ve got.”

Mr. Laird said the number of people the election board requires “blows my mind” and Mr. Simpkins said that number is likely set by the state as well.

Mr. Barnette said small communities lose their identity with these changes — and it’s especially ironic this year because in the primary election the only two County Commissioner candidates in the District 2 race are from Mt. Vernon. And since they’re both Republican with no Democrats having filed, the outcome will be decided by GOP voters next month.

Commissioner Randy Laird said Tylerton on Smith Island no longer has a polling place forcing voters there on election day to take a boat to Ewell. “I tried to get them a polling place but I couldn’t get nothing done,” he said.

County Administrator Doug Taylor said he would look into this on behalf of the board. Vice President Laird said these changes discourage people to vote, which at one time were community events with church halls serving as polling places and sandwiches and refreshments sold.

SCTHS is the location for early voting which starts Thursday, July 7 and continues every day including Sunday through Thursday, July 14 during the hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. To vote by mail a request for a ballot must be received at the election office by 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 12 if sent by mail or 5 p.m. Friday, July 15 if the request is made online.

A mail-in ballot may also be picked up at the Board of Elections office in the County Office Complex, 11916 Somerset Avenue, Princess Anne.

Mail-in ballots can be deposited at drop boxes outside the County Office Complex, SCTHS, and Crisfield High School, but Mr. Barnette is not a fan of this either, a procedure that’s been called into question since 2020, remarking that “they’re still counting them votes.”

Other changes announced earlier this year include voting in Crisfield where all area residents will vote at Crisfield High School with no ballots being cast at Woodson Elementary. In Princess Anne, voters who cast ballots at Greenwood Elementary School will be directed to PAES, but will return to GES for the general election in November.

“We just don’t have the personnel to open all” of the locations,” said Somerset County Election Director Julia Cox. “If you don’t have the people you can’t open.”

Smith Islanders can cast ballots in Ewell but they will be provisional, as they were in 2020, Ms. Cox said. When the polls close a Department of Natural Resources boat will ferry them to the mainland where they will be qualified and counted in Princess Anne. She said votes on Tylerton haven’t been cast “in quite a while” with some 30 voters in all there.

The most convenient method is to vote by mail by following the instructions on the Board of Elections notice mailed recently to all voters. Ms. Cox said early voting is available for eight straight days at the technical high school.