Maryland Lt Gov Miller pushes back on Trump DOJ ballot investigation

Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller pushed back on President Donald Trump’s call for a Justice Department investigation into the mail-in voting error, denying allegations of fraud and arguing that election administration errors occur in nearly “every election.”

Trump called on the Justice Department to launch an investigation into some Maryland voters who received the wrong ballots in the mail for the upcoming primary election after election officials acknowledged that the state’s board of elections made a mistake. This led Trump to place the blame on Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, accusing him of corruptly interfering with the election process to ensure Democrats won.

The Maryland State Board of Elections announced that it was “notified of an error made by our mail-in ballot vendor, Taylor Print & Visual Impressions (TPVI), Inc.”

TRUMP CALLS A DOJ INVESTIGATION INTO MARYLAND INTO MAIL GAME FAILURE BECAUSE OF SUSPICION OF ‘CORRUPTED’ ADMINISTRATION. WES MOORE TIES

“This was done by the Corrupt Governor of the State, Wes Moore,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on May 18. “He let this happen to make sure the Democrats won.

Miller told Fox News Digital that the Maryland State Board of Elections operates independently of the governor’s administration and called ballot distribution errors a recurring problem in election administration.

“The administration, they are a separate body from us, the board of elections,” Miller said.

“And sometimes it happens,” he continued. “Ballots are mailed incorrectly. This happens in almost every election.

While election administration errors have occurred in Maryland, including a glitch in voter roster software in 2018, there is no publicly available evidence to suggest that inaccurate mail-in ballots occur “in every election.”

The state election board will send new ballots to all voters who received mail-in ballots before May 14, acknowledging that many voters who received new ballots may not have been affected by this setback.

The state election board stated that “there is no risk of double voting as a result of this problem” and suggested that the state has measures to prevent this situation from occurring.

Trump also questioned how the issue would be resolved without the threat of a possible double vote.

POLITICAL SMELL: MARYLAND GOVERNMENT. WES MOORE CALLS TRUMP’S SEWER SPILL CRIME ‘Nonsense’

President Donald Trump has called on the Justice Department to launch an investigation into some Maryland voters who received the wrong ballots in the mail for the upcoming primary election. (Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images)

“They sent 500,000 Illegal Ballots in Maryland and got caught!” Trump wrote at Truth Social. “Now they’re going to send out another 500,000 Mail Ballots, but no one knows what’s in the first 500,000 ballots they sent out.”

“Also, most of those Votes went to Democrats, so any Republican running in Maryland has no chance!”

Miller rejected the idea that this problem was intentional or the result of corruption within the state.

“I don’t think this happened with any malicious intent,” he told Fox News Digital. “I think it’s just the seller’s fault.”

State Election Administrator Jared DeMarinis also denied Trump’s claim that “illegal” ballots were distributed.

ERRORS IN MARYLAND BALLOT COUNT TRIGGERED GOP PRESS FOR A FEDERAL REVIEW OF BLUE STATE’S VOTER REGISTRATIONS

Maryland State Election Administrator Jared DeMarinis defended the state election board’s response to an unspecified number of Maryland residents receiving incorrect ballots in the mail. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service)

Trump said he asked Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department to investigate the voting error, but the Justice Department has not publicly announced an investigation.

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Miller also said the Justice Department had not shared any information with him about what the investigation would entail.

“We’ll see what the investigation shows,” Miller said.