Glitch Snags Some Maryland Voters Who Registered Online

Maryland's State Board of Elections says they are sending letters today to 186 people, notifying them that their online voter registrations were affected by a technical glitch in the system.

"Their application didn't get seen for data entry purposes," says Ross Goldstein, spokesperson for the Board of Elections. "It's almost as if their application got stuck to the back of another, so the one that was registered was correct, but the one behind, so to speak, wasn't seen."

Goldstein says the board was alerted to the problem when a voter called in to say they registered online and when they checked their status, it looked like they were not registered at all.

"So when they go to check in on Election Day, it's going to seem as if they are not registered to vote," he says. "They are registered to vote, though. The error has been resolved. They're properly registered to vote. The only problem is since they don't show up in the precinct register, they'll have to vote a provisional ballot."

Rebecca Wilson of the group Save Our Votes says those voters should take their letter with them to the polls. And even if you don't think you're affected, check online.

"Call your local Board of Elections before you head to a polling place," says Wilson. "And see if you can straighten it out. Make sure you know where your polling place is where you're supposed to be voting."

This isn't the first issue with Maryland's new online voter registration system, which launched in August. Nearly 200 other voters who changed their addresses online were affected by the glitch, but their applications were fixed before the deadline.