By: Hallie Miller | April 4, 2025 | Baltimore Banner Link
A majority of voters prefer more county-wide voting hubs to casting their ballots at neighborhood schools, churches or community centers. (Image: Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner)
A Washington Post-UMD poll found support for establishing countywide voting centers
A majority of Maryland residents support switching from assigned neighborhood voting precincts to countywide centers, a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found, indicating a marked shift in voter preferences since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020.
Even as the pandemic continues to recede from view, the pollsters said at least one element of the public-health crisis has remained constant: a turn away from same-day, in-person voting at neighborhood sites and toward other methods.
As recently as 2016, more than 60% of voters in the state used assigned polling centers to cast their ballots. During the 2024 presidential election, just over 40% of people cast ballots at neighborhood precincts, according to the University of Maryland researchers.
About 60% of poll respondents said they preferred using fewer, better-staffed voting centers that could be accessed by anyone who lives in a given county. The pollsters said respondents of all racial and ethnic backgrounds and political parties supported such a shift at similar rates, with especially strong backing among Black Marylanders, 70% of whom said they were in favor.
