BALTIMORE — Early voting for Maryland’s presidential primary election begins Thursday, and elections officials are preparing to implement a new method of quashing misinformation about the deluge of mail-in ballot requests they received this year.

“The weather is complying nicely for the week ahead for early voting,” said Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis. “We’re prepared and moving forward with it.”

There are 97 early voting centers across the state — eight of them are in Baltimore City. All early voting centers will be open for Marylanders on May 2-9 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 14 is the official date for the primary election.

One change Maryland voters will see this election cycle concerns provisional ballots.

In an effort to collect more data for education campaigns, to dispel misinformation about the mail-in voting process and catch any potential instances of voter fraud, the State Board of Elections expanded a question on Maryland provisional ballots to ask for more specific reasons people are voting that way.

Previously, the form only asked if people had already voted or if they requested a mail-in ballot. In an interview Tuesday, DeMarinis said the question was framed “too general” in prior elections.

Now, when voters who requested but never received a mail-in ballot fill out provisional ballots, they will be asked if they requested a mail-in ballot to be delivered through the U.S. Postal Service, printed from the internet or via fax. It will ask a similar question to voters who received their requested mail-in ballot, but instead opted to vote in person.

Additionally, the new provisional ballots will record information regarding voters who didn’t request a mail-in ballot, but their local board of elections recorded that someone else did and turned it in on their behalf. DeMarinis said that, in those instances, those ballots will be forwarded to the state prosecutor’s office for investigation.

At the top of the primary election ballot are choices for Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, which are presumed to be President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, respectively.

Across the state, Marylanders will select their top candidates to represent them in the U.S. Senate. Democratic voters will select their top choice among a pool of 10 candidates, with U.S. Rep. David Trone and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks leading the pack.

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