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.
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.
The accusation came after a recent vendor error made it necessary to send replacement ballots to some voters ahead of Maryland’s 2026 gubernatorial primary in June.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
TRUMP: “In Maryland, they sent out 500,000 Illegal Mail In Ballots, and they got caught! So now, they’re going to send out 500,000 more Mail In Ballots, but nobody knows what’s happening with the first 500,000 they sent. In addition, many of these ballots went to Democrats, so any Republican running in Maryland doesn’t 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.”
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 vendor error. 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.
Safeguards such as unique identifiers on ballot envelopes ensure that each voter can only vote once. Additionally, the error won’t 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.
“It bears repeating that no fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed,” Jared DeMarinis, Maryland’s state administrator of elections, wrote in an X post Monday night. “The wording in President Trump’s continued posts about Maryland’s elections creates an environment of misinformation on a voting right. Mail-in voting is not a partisan issue. Mail-in voting is legal.”
DeMarinis further clarified, “Maryland elections are administered, supervised and managed by the bipartisan State Board of Elections — not the Governor.” DeMarinis said he is “the chief State election official in charge of implementing and conducting the election.”
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Moore, called Trump’s statement “false and irresponsible” and said, “Marylanders should look to the State Board of Elections for accurate information — not social media misinformation designed to undermine confidence in our elections.”
Asked for comment, the White House directed The Associated Press to Trump’s aforementioned Truth Social post.
Only voters who were mailed a ballot before May 14 are affected, according to the state’s 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 — Taylor Print & Visual Impressions Inc. — responded to requests seeking those numbers. DeMarinis said in a statement Friday, “With over 500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in its integrity or accuracy.”
The board decided 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 “REPLACEMENT BALLOT INSIDE” and the return envelope will be labeled as a “REPLACEMENT ENVELOPE.”
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.
Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director at Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group focused on election technology, explained that “nobody can vote twice” in the upcoming election because “each returned mail ballot envelope is authenticated against voter records before the ballot is accepted and counted.” Plus, he said, the error isn’t expected to make much of an impact — especially on the general election.
“Given 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’s claim that ‘any Republican running in Maryland doesn’t have a chance!’ makes no sense. It fits into a pattern of baseless, unworthy attacks on U.S. elections and election officials.”
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
Melissa Goldin, The Associated Press
