The Baltimore Banner reported on August 7th that Baltimore City gave a million-dollar deal to “McAfee Election Services” for at least the seventh straight year to “administer” the City’s primary and general elections. Sam McAfee is the owner, founder, and sole listed public employee of McAfee Election Services. In 1996, McAfee resigned from his Baltimore Election Board job when he was among several election officials charged with voting illegally.
The expose is the work of the Banner’s Enterprise Reporter, Lee O. Sanderlin. He previously covered abuses of power, legislative issues, and other topics for the Baltimore Sun. The Baltimore Banner is a news website founded as a non-profit by Stewart Bainum Jr. in 2022. The website claims 44,000 paying subscribers and 125 staff members. [i]
According to the Banner, in March, the City approved a $1.7 million deal for McAfee Election Services to “administer” the primary and general elections. Under its contract, McAfee organizes and prepares the elections warehouse, services voting machines and ballot scanners, sets up early voting sites, prepares the press room, helps count votes, oversees the ballot canvass, and more.
No other Maryland jurisdiction contracts out election work to the extent Baltimore does. By outsourcing critical election oversight functions to an outside vendor, Baltimore’s Board of Election reduces its ability to guard against fraud and other legal violations.
McAfee Election Services’ owner, founder, and sole listed public employee, Sam McAfee, has had a personal history of election fraud. In 1996, he was among several election officials charged with illegally voting in the City while actually living elsewhere. McAfee’s case was dismissed after he resigned, according to an online public records database; the court file was destroyed, and records of it were expunged from Maryland’s online court systems. However, Sam McAfee’s tawdry election integrity history remains preserved in a 1996 news account in the Baltimore Sun.[ii]
According to documentation obtained by the Banner, the Board of Elections justified the unusual awarding of a no-bid contract worth over a million dollars, claiming: “The elections are not something that just any company can perform. This supplier has been a staple in the elections community and the administrator for elections for Baltimore City for many years.”
Yet election administration failures in Baltimore have been recurring.
- In the 2020 primary, the state “wiped preliminary results clean” after a few hours of counting on election night because the reported totals were wildly off from expectations.[iii]
- In 2022, election workers misplaced flash drives from ballot machines, which delayed reporting and raised tampering concerns. [iv]
- Then, in this year’s primary election, election officials “overreported 590 votes” until the error was identified in an audit. [v]
The Baltimore City Board of Election’s suspect relationship with McAfee Election Services has been questioned before. Baltimore’s Bureau of Budget and Management found the City’s election administration was not “cost-effective” in 2013. Their report noted the City was spending twice as much on elections as counties such as Montgomery and Baltimore and recommended renegotiating the McAfee contract to reduce costs. [vi]
The Banner further reported the concerns of State Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat: “Foisting off vitally important tasks with no competition seems really dangerous to the, at least, appearance of running great elections.”
[i] https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/subscribe/
[ii] Employee charged with illegal voting resigns Elections board worker oversaw building where machines were stored – Baltimore Sun, https://www.baltimoresun.com/1996/03/29/employee-charged-with-illegal-voting-resigns-elections-board-worker-oversaw-building-where-machines-were-stored/
[iii] Concern from candidates, officials as error creates delay in release of returns; Dixon leads in Baltimore mayoral count – Baltimore Sun
[iv] Following delay caused by misplaced thumb drives, all Baltimore’s in-person voting totals are posted – CBS Baltimore (cbsnews.com)
[v] Baltimore elections day counts dipped. Officials call it human error. – The Baltimore Banner
[vi] 2013 report from Baltimore’s Bureau of the Budget and Management Research; https://s3.amazonaws.com/baltimorecity.gov.if-us-east-1/s3fs-public/2024-01/board_of_elections_report_final.pdf
Direct Line News is a Maryland-based free-access publication committed to the Republican reform tradition.
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