Former President Donald Trump made unfounded allegations on Monday claiming Maryland election officials, including the state’s Democratic governor, deliberately distributed hundreds of thousands of illegal mail-in ballots to benefit Democratic candidates.
Trump posted his accusations on Truth Social and reiterated them during a White House healthcare event, stating he would request the attorney general and Justice Department to launch an investigation.
These allegations followed a vendor mistake that required election officials to mail new ballots to certain voters before Maryland’s June 2026 gubernatorial primary.
Trump stated: “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.”
However, these claims are inaccurate. The Maryland State Board of Elections confirmed that no unlawful mail-in ballots were distributed. Instead, certain voters received primary ballots for the incorrect political party because of a vendor mistake. Affected voters will get replacement ballots, and the original incorrect ballots sent to election offices will be invalidated. Voters have been told to discard their original ballots if they haven’t returned them yet.
Security measures including unique identifiers on ballot envelopes prevent voters from casting multiple ballots. The mistake won’t benefit either political party since Maryland holds separate Republican and Democratic primaries to select general election candidates.
“It bears repeating that no fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed,” posted Jared DeMarinis, Maryland’s state administrator of elections, on X Monday evening. “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 added clarification: “Maryland elections are administered, supervised and managed by the bipartisan State Board of Elections — not the Governor.” He noted that he serves as “the chief State election official in charge of implementing and conducting the election.”
A spokesperson for the governor, Ammar Moussa, described Trump’s claims as “false and irresponsible” and advised, “Marylanders should look to the State Board of Elections for accurate information — not social media misinformation designed to undermine confidence in our elections.”
When asked for response, the White House referred The Associated Press to Trump’s Truth Social post.
According to the state Board of Elections, only voters who received ballots before May 14 were impacted. The board hasn’t disclosed the exact number of affected voters, their party registration, or the quantity of replacement ballots being distributed. Neither the board nor the vendor — Taylor Print & Visual Impressions Inc. — provided these figures when requested. DeMarinis said Friday, “With over 500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in its integrity or accuracy.”
The board chose to send replacement ballots to all potentially affected voters because the vendor couldn’t precisely determine which voters received correct versus incorrect ballots. These voters will get postcards notifying them of incoming new ballots, plus email and text alerts if they’ve signed up for such notifications. The replacement ballot will arrive in an envelope marked “REPLACEMENT BALLOT INSIDE” with a return envelope labeled “REPLACEMENT ENVELOPE.”
Voters receiving replacement ballots should not use their original ballot and must return the replacement in the proper envelope for their vote to count. The board anticipates completing the replacement ballot mailing process by May 29 on a rolling schedule.
Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director at Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election technology organization, noted that “nobody can vote twice” in the coming election because “each returned mail ballot envelope is authenticated against voter records before the ballot is accepted and counted.” He added that the error likely won’t significantly impact the 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.”
