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The Frederick County Board of Elections may run Frederick city's elections next year after all.
The board is scheduled to meet Monday to talk about reversing its Dec. 3 decision to not run the city's 2009 elections in light of a vote Wednesday by the Maryland Board of Public Works to extend its voting machine contract.
The vote renewed a contract for Premier Election Solutions, of Allen, Texas, to continue providing touch-screen voting machines to Maryland until at least June 30, 2009, with two three-month renewal options.
That enables local elections boards to have access to voting machines — addressing the Frederick County Board of Elections' primary reason for bowing out of the city's elections, which it has run for years.
"One of the reasons we told the city we would not be able to run the elections was we weren't sure what, if any, voting system would be available to us because the Premier contract ends [Dec. 31]," Frederick County Board of Elections Director Stuart Harvey said Wednesday.
Frederick Mayor W. Jeff Holtzinger said Thursday that the city may have to handle some aspects of the election.
"There may be some things that have to change," he said. "We may have to deal with candidate filings and we may have to be the entity that handles the financial statements that are supplied by candidates. … I think [the county Board of Elections] is going to say [it is] going to administer the elections provided they can come up with a way for us to address those smaller things."
Another issue is what to do about polling places, he said.
Frederick County Public Schools made clear after the 2005 elections that it no longer wants its buildings used as polling places for municipal elections, citing safety concerns for students. The schools do not close for city elections.
"That's going to cause some problems for us because we'll need to find new polling centers — perhaps churches, community centers, fire halls," he said.
If you go
Frederick County Board of Elections hearing
12:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 22
Winchester Room, Winchester Hall
12 E. Church St., Frederick 21701