At tomorrow’s meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works, Free Speech For People and SAVE our Votes Maryland will ask the Board of Public Works not to approve the State Board of Elections request to commit $109 million for a proposed voting system contract. 

The groups oppose the purchase proposal because it would include voting systems that are not certified by the federal Election Assistance Commission or the Maryland State Board of Elections. Compliance with the federal standards and certification by the State Board of Elections are prerequisites to any voting system acquisition, according to Maryland code. 

Senator Cheryl Kagan (D-17), vice-chair of the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment (and Elections!) Committee, which oversees elections, also raised concerns regarding the voting system purchase in a letter sent to the State Board of Elections on June 26, 2026. The letter stated, “Marylanders deserve a transparent process, especially when the Board is debating the procurement of more than $100,000,000 in election equipment– an item that directly affects public trust in our elections.”

The purchase proposal submitted to the State Board of Elections would commit Maryland to purchasing voting equipment by 2028 that has been certified to old, outdated federal standards from 2005. New, updated standards were adopted in 2021 to reflect the changes in technology and election security landscape.

The proposed contract includes the purchase of an additional, second system that the vendor claims will be federally tested to comply with the 2021 federal standards by 2030. But, importantly, the vendor does not currently have a system suitable for MD that meets the 2021 standards, nor that has been publicly demonstrated, nor that has even been submitted for federal testing to the 2021 standards. No documentation or information about this system has been made public. 

“Voting equipment is not just another capital purchase; it is the infrastructure of our democracy,” said Rebecca Wilson, co-director of SAVE our Votes, a nonpartisan volunteer organization working to ensure that Maryland’s elections are secure, accessible, and verifiable.“We are gambling with taxpayer dollars on unproven technology without the transparency the public is owed. We need to hit the brakes now to ensure these investments are legally sound, fully transparent, and worthy of Maryland voters.”

“The State Board of Elections is asking for $109 million to include the purchase of a voting system sight unseen, that is not yet commercially available, not yet federally certified – that hasn’t even been submitted for certification testing,” said Susan Greenhalgh, senior advisor for election security at Free Speech For People. “This should give the BPW grave concerns to pause this contract from moving forward.”