New data from the Washington Post-UMD poll shows strong support for shifting Election Day voting in Maryland from neighborhood polling sites to vote centers that can be used by anyone in that county.
More and more Marylanders are choosing not to vote at neighborhood polling places. In 2024, they did not return to pre-pandemic voting habits.
Over the last 20 years, Marylanders have dramatically shifted the way we vote. In the 2008 general election, over 90% of votes in Maryland were cast at neighborhood polling places on Election Day. As recently as 2016, over 60% of votes in Maryland were cast this way. But more and more Marylanders are taking advantage of early voting and vote-by-mail to vote before Election Day. This trend, already underway before 2020, was dramatically accelerated during the pandemic.
In 2020, Maryland did not open neighborhood polling places on Election Day and instead opened “vote centers” that could serve anyone in the county. In November 2024, we had our first presidential election since the pandemic with neighborhood polling sites open on Election Day in Maryland. And while some Marylanders who are immunocompromised or otherwise at particular risk are still avoiding indoor interactions, the vast majority of voters were conducting life as they did pre-pandemic.
But Marylanders did not return to their pre-pandemic voting habits in 2024. Instead, we see clear evidence that the shift away from voting at neighborhood polling sites - already underway before the pandemic - is here to stay. Just over 40% of Maryland votes in the 2024 General Election were cast at a neighborhood polling site on Election Day.
In our last Washington Post-UMD poll, we found nearly 60% of Marylanders support shifting Election Day voting from neighborhood polling places to countywide vote centers.
After seeing how many Marylanders chose not to vote at neighborhood polling places in November, we wanted to learn more about whether this change in behavior is also reflected in public opinion. Across the country, many states conduct elections without neighborhood polling places and instead conduct their election completely by mail or with a mix of vote-by-mail and “vote centers” that can be used by anyone in the county. In our January Washington Post-UMD poll of Maryland voters2, we asked two questions to learn more about whether Marylanders support a policy shift away from neighborhood polling sites.
Here’s what we asked about vote centers:
Currently, early voting sites in Maryland are open to any county registered voter. But those voting on Election Day have to vote at their neighborhood voting location. Would you support or oppose extending the same rules for early voting through Election Day, if that meant a much smaller number of voting locations but with a larger staff at each location? Do you (support/oppose) strongly or somewhat?
Here’s what we asked asked about vote-by-mail:
Would you support or oppose Maryland limiting in-person voting and instead conducting elections by mailing all voters a ballot which they can mail back or drop off at a county office or drop box. Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?
Here’s what we found:
Less than a third of Marylanders supported a shift to the kind of vote-by-mail policies in place in states like Oregon, Washington, California, and Utah. But we found that nearly 60% of Marylanders supported having a smaller number of better staffed vote centers on Election Day that can serve anyone in the county instead of neighborhood polling sites. Even more remarkable to us was the distribution of this support - vote centers receive majority support overall and across nearly all of the individual characteristics considered in our poll.
Black Marylanders are particularly supportive of a shift to vote centers.
While a majority of respondents of all racial backgrounds supported a shift to vote centers in our poll, we found Black voters were particularly supportive of this policy change. Nearly 70% of Black Marylanders support this change.
There is bipartisan support for a shift to vote centers. Democrats and Republicans support it at similar rates.
Public opinion about voting policies is increasingly polarized by political party. But that was not the case among Maryland voters regarding a shift to vote centers. Roughly 60% of both Democrats and Republicans support this policy change.
A majority of Marylanders in all regions of the state support shifting from neighborhood polling places to vote centers on Election Day.
Maryland is blessed with many regions that have different levels of density and distinct political cultures and heritage. Nevertheless, we find majority support for a shift to vote centers in every region of the state with particularly high levels of support in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County.
A majority of Marylanders who voted at a neighborhood polling place in 2024 support a shift to vote centers.
One of the most durable findings in political science is that voting is “habitual.” People form habits and rituals around political participation that they stick with over time. So we thought that many Marylanders who voted at a neighborhood polling place in November 2024 might be reluctant to change their habits in the future. But that’s not what we found. Even among Marylanders who currently vote at a neighborhood polling place, nearly 60% support shifting to vote centers.
The upshot? Policy makers face important questions about how to allocate resources and shift policy as Maryland voters change behavior.
The world and the state we love is changing around us every day. And so the future of Maryland elections may need to look different from the past. We hope these data can provide valuable insights into the behavior and opinions of Maryland voters so that we can all have a fruitful and constructive conversation about the future of Maryland elections. It’s through this kind of informed and forward looking dialogue that we can work towards strengthening democracy for all Maryland communities.
Sam Novey is Chief Strategist at the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. Richard Engstrom, Mike Hanmer, and Kennedy Lighty all contributed to this report.
1This chart includes 95% - 98% of all ballots cast in each Presidential General Election in Maryland since 2008. It does not include provisional ballots.
2The survey was fielded January 24-28, 2025, and included 1,002 Marylanders randomly sampled from a voter registration database with 63% reached by cell phone, 16% reached by landline, and 21% who completed the survey online via a text message invitation. The toplines and details about the methodology can be found here
