{"id":7946,"date":"2026-05-19T21:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7946"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:02:07","slug":"fact-focus-trump-falsely-accuses-maryland-of-sending-illegal-mail-in-ballots-to-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7946","title":{"rendered":"FACT FOCUS: Trump falsely accuses Maryland of sending \u2018illegal\u2019 mail-in ballots to voters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By MELISSA GOLDIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump on Monday accused Maryland officials, including Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, of illegally sending hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots to voters in an effort ensure victory for Democrats.<\/p>\n

Read more Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra continue to lead in new California gubernatorial candidate poll<\/a><\/p>\n

He made the claim on Truth Social and repeated it later in the day during a healthcare affordability event at the White House, saying he would ask the U.S. attorney general and the Justice Department to investigate.<\/p>\n

The accusation came after a recent vendor error made it necessary to send replacement ballots to some voters ahead of Maryland\u2019s 2026 gubernatorial primary in June.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look at the facts.<\/p>\n

TRUMP: \u201cIn Maryland, they sent out 500,000 Illegal Mail In Ballots, and they got caught! So now, they\u2019re going to send out 500,000 more Mail In Ballots, but nobody knows what\u2019s happening with the first 500,000 they sent. In addition, many of these ballots went to Democrats, so any Republican running in Maryland doesn\u2019t have a chance! This was done by the Corrupt Governor of the State, Wes Moore. He allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE FACTS: This is false. No illegal mail-in ballots were sent to voters. The Maryland State Board of Elections said some voters received a primary ballot for the wrong party due to a . Voters who may have been affected will receive a replacement ballot and any of the original ballots already sent to election offices will be voided. Voters have been instructed to destroy their original ballots if they have not yet returned them.<\/p>\n

Safeguards such as unique identifiers on ballot envelopes ensure that each voter can only vote once. Additionally, the error won\u2019t give one party an advantage over the other. In Maryland, Republicans and Democrats vote in separate primaries to determine who their candidates will be in the general election.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt bears repeating that no fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed,\u201d Jared DeMarinis, Maryland\u2019s state administrator of elections, wrote in an X post Monday night. \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 further clarified, \u201cMaryland elections are administered, supervised and managed by the bipartisan State Board of Elections \u2014 not the Governor.\u201d DeMarinis said he is \u201cthe chief State election official in charge of implementing and conducting the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump and Kennedy seek to relax safeguards for AI healthcare tools<\/a><\/p>\n

Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Moore, called Trump\u2019s statement \u201cfalse and irresponsible\u201d and said, \u201cMarylanders should look to the State Board of Elections for accurate information \u2014 not social media misinformation designed to undermine confidence in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for comment, the White House directed The Associated Press to Trump\u2019s aforementioned Truth Social post.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Only voters who were mailed a ballot before May 14 are affected, according to the state\u2019s Board of Elections. The board did not specify how many voters were affected, what party they belong to, or how many replacement ballots are being sent out. Neither the board nor the vendor \u2014 Taylor Print & Visual Impressions Inc. \u2014 responded to requests seeking those numbers. DeMarinis said Friday, \u201cWith over 500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in its integrity or accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

that all voters who may have been affected would be sent a replacement ballot because the vendor could not accurately identify which voters had received the correct one and which had not. Such voters will receive a postcard alerting them that a new ballot is on its way, as well as an email and a text if they have opted in to those communications. The new ballot will come in an envelope stating \u201cREPLACEMENT BALLOT INSIDE\u201d and the return envelope will be labeled as a \u201cREPLACEMENT ENVELOPE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters who receive a replacement ballot have been instructed not to use the original ballot they received and to return the replacement ballot in the correct envelope so that their vote is counted. The board expects the mailing of replacement ballots, which will occur on a rolling basis, to be completed by May 29.<\/p>\n

Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director at Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group focused on election technology, explained that \u201cnobody can vote twice\u201d in the upcoming election because \u201ceach returned mail ballot envelope is authenticated against voter records before the ballot is accepted and counted.\u201d Plus, he said, the error isn\u2019t expected to make much of an impact \u2014 especially on the general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven how quickly the error was discovered, it is unlikely to have even a small effect on the primary election over a month from now. Beyond that, it cannot possibly affect the general election, so Trump\u2019s claim that \u2018any Republican running in Maryland doesn\u2019t have a chance!\u2019 makes no sense. It fits into a pattern of baseless, unworthy attacks on U.S. elections and election officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Google announces slew of AI advances, including a personal AI assistant coming soon<\/a><\/p>\n

Find AP Fact Checks here: https:\/\/apnews.com\/APFactCheck.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent vendor error made it necessary to send replacement ballots to some voters ahead of Maryland\u2019s 2026 gubernatorial primary in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFACT FOCUS: Trump falsely accuses Maryland of sending \u2018illegal\u2019 mail-in ballots to voters - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7946\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FACT FOCUS: Trump falsely accuses Maryland of sending \u2018illegal\u2019 mail-in ballots to voters - 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