Baltimore NAACP wants hearing on motor voter discrepancies
Baltimore NAACP head Marvin L. Cheatham, Sr. is wants legislation passed this year to address what he called an "unacceptable problem" of would-be voters not being added to the registration rolls. 
"As someone who has registered more voters in the state of Maryland than anyone, I beg us to please address this issue formally, publicly and immediately," said Cheatham in an email to Baltimore elected officials.
The Baltimore Sun reported Monday that nearly 25 percent of the people who've started the process of registering to vote at the state Motor Vehicle Administration offices were not added to the rolls. A disproportionate number of the failures were in Baltimore and Prince George's County, data showed.
The MVA blames the discrepancy on motorists failing to fill out and return proper paperwork.
But officials with the State Board of Elections are not so sure. Every year they encounter Marylanders who learned on Election Day that their names were not added, even though they said they'd registered when renewing their driver's licenses.
A number of states have faced similar problems when implementing the federal motor-voter requirements. Delaware found a solution by scrapping the paper-based system for voter registration and moving to a completely electronic process.
"As someone who has registered more voters in the state of Maryland than anyone, I beg us to please address this issue formally, publicly and immediately," said Cheatham in an email to Baltimore elected officials.
The Baltimore Sun reported Monday that nearly 25 percent of the people who've started the process of registering to vote at the state Motor Vehicle Administration offices were not added to the rolls. A disproportionate number of the failures were in Baltimore and Prince George's County, data showed.
The MVA blames the discrepancy on motorists failing to fill out and return proper paperwork.
But officials with the State Board of Elections are not so sure. Every year they encounter Marylanders who learned on Election Day that their names were not added, even though they said they'd registered when renewing their driver's licenses.
A number of states have faced similar problems when implementing the federal motor-voter requirements. Delaware found a solution by scrapping the paper-based system for voter registration and moving to a completely electronic process.
