Maryland Voters’ Attitudes About Their Typical Voting Experience

Abstract

In Maryland, there are essentially three ways of casting a ballot: 1) in-person on Election Day at a neighborhood precinct; 2) in-person early, before Election Day, at a countywide early voting center; or 3) using a mail ballot that a voter returns by mail or drops off. In the 2024 elections, voters were split almost evenly across these three modes of voting. As the 2026 primary and general elections approached, we sought to learn about the proportion of Marylanders who have used each of these modes of voting, their overall satisfaction with their typical voting experience across the modes they have used, and about key aspects of the voting experience. This report presents the results of a survey of 1,001 Maryland adult citizens, conducted from April 15-26, 2026. The questions discussed here focused on their typical voting experience. Our results can be summarized straightforwardly. Overall, Maryland voters express high levels of satisfaction with each mode of voting: 65.8% report being very satisfied with their typical precinct voting experience on Election Day, 62.8% with voting early in-person, and 63.4% with voting by mail. The proportion indicating that they are somewhat satisfied was also high across modes of voting, with 29% of those who have voted on Election Day, 31.3% of those who have voted early in-person, and 31% of those who have voted by mail providing this response. As discussed below, satisfaction with key components of the voting experience, such as the performance of poll workers (election judges), is also high.