The Maryland State Board of Elections has voted unanimously to scrap touch-screen voting machines in favor of paper ballots for early voting before the April 26 primary.
The 5-0 vote took place Thursday afternoon, after Elections Administrator Linda Lamone expressed concern about the touch-screen machines.
She says the format can create a disadvantage for candidates with last names that are further down the alphabet.
She also says it can be confusing and time-consuming for voters to navigate between multiple pages of candidates.
Lamone says the screens are particularly challenging to display all of the candidates in one page, in races where there are a lot of candidates.
She cited the Democratic race for mayor of Baltimore as an example of one of those races. There are 13 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for that office.
Officials initially wanted to use the machines for early voting because otherwise voters would have had to use multiple ballots to cast votes in multiple judicial, city council and congressional races.
Earlier today, Lamone expressed her concerns to a Senate committee.
Early voting takes place from April 14 until April 21.
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