Del. Pat McDonough says he's expecting a "massive" amount of voter fraud across the state, but the state Elections Office says not so fast.
McDonough said he and his staff uncovered documents that show hundreds of people committing voter fraud in Frederick County.
"This is amazing that a scandal of this magnitude, occurring in this state, and in this day and age could go without anybody doing anything about it, that should be doing something about," he said.
The longtime lawmaker said he thinks it's affecting poll results.
"If it's hundreds in Frederick County, what about Montgomery, Prince George's, Baltimore County. So we are probably talking about thousands of non-citizens voting in the state of Maryland," McDonough said.
McDonough claims to have documents showing people who aren't U.S. citizens voting, explaining when they get notified about serving for jury duty, they're telling elections officials they're not a citizen -- but the new paperwork doesn't go to board of elections offices that keeps the names on the roles.
"Under the law, that legal document and that information is supposed to be turned over to the election board which removes them from the roles and then it's supposed to go to a state prosecutor," he said.
Linda Lamone, an administrator with the state Board of Elections, says that removal is what's happening, but the instances aren't as common as McDonough thinks.
"Once they get into the system, they realize they didn't mean to register to vote, but then they get a notice for jury, and it makes it very clear on that jury notice that you have to be a U.S. citizen to serve. So they go 'oh, I'm not. I can't.' So they respond I can't," she said.
She's been with the office for nearly 20 years and says if elections supervisors see someone isn't a citizen and that happens, the person has two weeks to say otherwise.
"At that point, the local boards of election send that voter a letter, a show cause letter, saying that if you don't show cause within two weeks saying that you're a U.S. citizen, we will be removing you from the voter roles," Lamone said.
McDonough said if what he found is true, the impact could be huge fro the upcoming election, and he wants an explanation.
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