OCEAN CITY – The Maryland State Board of Elections announced last week it has approved Worcester County’s request to use the Roland E. Powell Convention Center as its early voting center.
Due to the pandemic, the Gull Creek Senior Living Community, the former early voting center in Worcester County, could not confirm the building would be open to the public by October due to COVID-19 restrictions. Consequently, the election office began its search for a facility that met the early voting law that states a location must be within 10 miles of 50% or more of the county’s registered voters and allow enough room for social distancing. The convention center’s bayfront ballroom met all the requirements.
The State Board of Elections also approved changing the dates of early voting to begin Monday, Oct. 26 and run through Monday, Nov. 2 including Saturday and Sunday and changed the voting hours of early voting to 7 a.m.-8 p.m. each day.
Ballot drop boxes will be available outside the convention center and at the local Board of Elections office in Snow Hill. The ballot drop boxes will be available to the public 30 days prior to Election Day for voters preferring to vote by mail but wish to not mail their voted ballot.
In addition, the Worcester County Board of Elections will use vote centers for Election Day. The board plans to have four vote centers located in the county (Pocomoke, Snow Hill, Berlin and Ocean City) where voters can go to any vote center to cast their ballot in person. All vote center locations will be announced soon. Specimen ballots will be mailed in October listing the early voting center and vote center locations.