MARYLAND — In yet another defeat for Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox, the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed the Montgomery Circuit Court decision permitting elections officials to tabulate mail ballots as they arrive from voters this election season.
The results of voting will not be released in any way until polls have closed. The alternative desired by Cox would have blocked the processing of ballots until two days after Election Day, delaying final results until as late as early 2023 and causing particularly acute problems in counties where local charters require that top local officials be sworn in by early December.
Cox has opposed a smooth election process every step of the way. He voted against the legislative effort to fix the issue when he had a chance to support a legislative solution. Today, after weeks of claiming to support Gov. Hogan’s veto despite Hogan himself saying he “strongly supports” the Board of Elections’ effort, Cox’s legal team hit at the governor, saying in court “Shame on the legislature and governor for allowing this to happen.” After making his arguments today, Cox hinted that he was intending to stretch this out even further by taking his appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
“Dan Cox’s disrespect for the democratic process is never-ending,” said Maryland Democratic Party spokesperson Ernest Bailey. “Cox seems more focused on forcing ballots to be counted late, reproducing the same situation he used to claim fraud as a part of Trump’s legal team in Pennsylvania in 2020, than actually trying to win support from Marylanders.”