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Actual Vote in Maryland

Varies by county

Information current as of October 2026

This page explains how to use the Actual Vote app in Maryland for the next election. New to Actual Vote? Start here to learn what it is and why it matters.

Maryland posts poll tapes at Election Day precincts, and in at least two counties the posted copy goes outside. State regulation requires every county's election judges' manual to cover how to “print, sign, and post total reports” at closing (COMAR 33.10.01.24). The 2026 judges' manuals for Montgomery and Carroll counties, the two we have read, both say to post a signed results report “on an outside door or wall for public viewing,” so there you can video-record it with the Actual Vote app after the 8 p.m. close. The State Board's own closing summary instead says judges “print a second totals report and post it in the voting room,” so ask your county board where it posts. Inside the voting room, the close is not on the State Board's list of events any individual may observe. It is for accredited challengers and watchers, designated by the State or local board, a candidate, a party, or a political committee, who must be inside before polls close and “cannot use cameras and electronic devices” in the voting location (Challengers and Watchers Manual, 2026). Early-voting centers print nothing when they close. Instead, from 9 a.m. on election day the local board prints a totals report for each early-voting unit, and it must let individuals observe unless that would threaten the count's accuracy or impede it (COMAR 33.17.07.04). Results can't be released before polls close, so ask your local board when and where it prints them.

Your participation is powerful: you join a nationwide team whose recordings get compared, tape-by-tape, against the officially reported results — an independent check on vote reporting, which is vulnerable to error and fraud. We haven’t published an Actual Vote analysis from Maryland yet, but see what a team achieved in the 2024 North Carolina primary. The process is legal and next-to-impossible to abuse for partisan gain: everything on a poll tape is already public.

Poll closing time in Maryland: 8 p.m. Anyone still in line at closing time is entitled to vote, so the closing procedure — and the tape — can run later.

Get the app How Actual Vote works See an example analysis

This information was compiled using AI-assisted internet research along with some calls to election offices and word-of-mouth tips. It reflects America Counts’s best knowledge of how to access poll tapes in Maryland as of October 2026, but it cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. The best way to be sure about accessing poll tapes in your area is to call your local elections office and ask — see below for ready-to-use scripts.

If your experience or knowledge of poll-tape procedure in Maryland is different from what we show here, please contact us and let us know — we update these pages as we learn more.

Your ways to participate in Maryland

See how the six ways to help compare →

  1. 1

    Record the outside posting where your county uses one

    Maryland’s election judges post a signed results report at close. The 2026 manuals for Montgomery and Carroll counties both put it on an outside door or wall for public viewing, so there you can record it with the Actual Vote app after polls close at 8 p.m. The State Board’s own summary says the voting room instead, so ask your county board where it posts. Inside the voting room, the close is open only to accredited challengers and watchers, designated by a candidate, party, political committee or election board, who must be inside before polls close and may not use cameras or phones there. Early-voting centers print nothing at close; their totals are printed at the local board from 9 a.m. on election day, where individuals may usually observe.

    See a detailed example of how to make a plan to visit polling places on election night based in Broward County, Florida.

  2. 2

    Be there at the close or observe the countNot available in Maryland

    Where your county posts inside the voting room, only accredited challengers and watchers may be there at the close, and they may not use cameras or phones there. See use case 1 for the counties that post outside.

  3. 3

    Record early-voting tapes

    Maryland’s early-voting centers print nothing when they close. From 9 a.m. on election day the local board prints a totals report for each early-voting unit, and it must let individuals observe unless that would threaten the count’s accuracy or impede it (COMAR 33.17.07.04). Results can’t be released before polls close. Call your county elections office ahead of time and ask where and when the early-voting tapes will be printed, and whether you may observe and video-record them. If they don’t have a plan to show them, you can politely ask them to display the tapes.

    See a detailed example of recording early-voting tapes, based on Cobb County, Georgia.

  4. 4

    Become a poll worker or observer

    Working the polls or serving as an appointed observer puts you right at the source — the earliest point in the chain of custody, and the clearest view of the count and the tape.

    See more details about Actual Vote for poll workers or observers.

    Sign up to be a poll worker →

  5. 5

    Visit or book an appointment at your county elections office

    Election offices can often provide many precincts’ tapes at once — a great way to cover a whole county on your own schedule.

    Email/phone script — book an appointment at your Maryland county elections office
    To: [your county] County elections office
    Re: Appointment to view and record precinct results tapes

    Hello, and thank you for your work. My name is [name]. My friends and I use Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — we video-record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check.

    We’d like to request an appointment to view and video-record the certified precinct results tapes (summary statements) from the [date] election — Election Day, absentee/by-mail, and early voting — for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____]. [Preferred date and window] would work, but we’re flexible and happy to follow any rules your office sets.

    Everything on these tapes is public records under the Maryland Public Information Act (Md. Code, Gen. Provisions § 4-201), and already public, so all we’d need is the tapes and a place to work. Thank you for considering it. — [name], [contact]

    Offices are busiest right before certification — offering a flexible window (and to start with a few precincts) makes a yes easier. See the full worked example for more.

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

  6. 6

    File a public-records request for poll-tape images

    Poll tapes are public records under the Maryland Public Information Act. You can request digital copies by precinct and voting method — available in every state, though it captures the tapes later in the chain of custody.

    Public-records request email — Maryland poll-tape images
    To: [your county] Board of Elections
    Re: Public information request — [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election] results tapes, [your county] County

    Dear [County] Board of Elections,

    Under the Maryland Public Information Act, Md. Code, Gen. Provisions § 4-201, I'm requesting copies of public election data — specifically the precinct totals reports (also called "poll tapes") printed and posted by election judges at the close of polls, meeting the following criteria:

    • From Maryland's [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election]
    • From all precincts in [your county] County
    • For Election Day (in-person precinct) voting, plus the mail-ballot central-count summary reports
    • I understand early-voting centers print no totals report when they close, so please just include whatever early-voting summary documents exist, if any
    • The reports showing candidate-by-candidate vote totals — I don't need the zero or configuration reports, though including them is fine
    • If for any combination above no ballots were cast (so no report was printed), simply omit it

    Digital scans (emailed or via a download link, in any common format such as .pdf or .jpg) would be ideal; physical copies for pickup or mail are also fine. These are public records, and the totals they show are already in the official published results. They'll be used for legitimate, non-partisan vote-reporting auditing with Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — you can see exactly how it works, and why it's non-partisan, at Start Here.

    If you must redact anything beyond precinct name, voting method, and results totals, please go ahead. If you deny any part of this request, please cite the specific exemption and let me know the appeal options under the law. Please also tell me of any fee in advance — I request a fee waiver, as this analysis is in the public interest, contributes to election transparency, and is not for any commercial purpose.

    Because our analysis is most useful before results are certified, I'd be grateful for the data within about a week if possible; if you expect a delay, just let me know when to expect it.

    Thank you for considering this request. — [name], [email/phone]

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

Example Actual Vote Recordings

We don’t have any recordings from Maryland yet — you could be the first! Here are some example poll tape videos by Actual Vote users in other states. America Counts compares the vote totals on each poll tape video to the official results to double-check the accuracy of the vote reporting. See this report from North Carolina in 2022 for an example.

Recordings live in the public Actual Vote Video Archive.

How we know this — and how you can check it

This reflects America Counts’s primary-source review of Maryland’s election statutes and Secretary of State guidance, most recently updated in October 2026; the summary at the top of this page and the early-voting card link the provisions it relies on. Procedures can still vary locally, so the surest way to confirm what applies at your polling place or elections office is to call them directly. Found something different? Tell us and we’ll verify it and fix the page.

Find your county's election website

County sites carry polling locations and local contact information. Search "[your county], Maryland elections" if a link 404s.

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