The Prince George’s County Board of Elections presented its proposed fiscal year 2026 general fund request and a briefing on recent special elections to the Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee on April 7. Committee members questioned ballot‑counting timing and long lines at vote centers during a recent special election.

Malcolm Moody, the council’s legislative and budget analyst for the Board of Elections, summarized the agency budget materials and said the FY26 proposed general fund budget is about $10.8 million, a decrease from FY25 by approximately $2.3 million. He also noted a supplemental request figure presented in the briefing of about $190,200. The presentation included a slide that broke down compensation, operating and fringe categories and a note that the board had a supplemental FY25 request related to the special election.

Wendy Honesty Bay (presented in the meeting as the county elections administrator) discussed recent special‑election operations and costs. She said the county paid roughly $2.1 million for each of the recent special elections (the figure was used as a rounded per‑special cost during committee discussion). The administrator described how the county used nine vote centers and staffed each with election workers; she said long lines at some locations, including Lake Arbor and Bowie, were caused by concentrated last‑minute turnout at a smaller number of vote centers rather than a systemic failure to staff sites. The board said it staffed each vote center with roughly 35 election workers and that lines were heavier at closing times because many voters waited until late in the day to cast ballots.

Committee members asked about ballot counting and canvassing. In committee discussion, the administrator said the board began processing some canvass activity after 10:00 a.m. on election day and paused counting later in the afternoon (the briefing stated counting activity typically paused about 4:30 p.m. to allow for board coordination and post‑election processing). The administrator and board staff said volunteer canvassers and the pool of trained workers who perform on‑site duties are largely the same individuals who staff vote centers, which constrains how many canvassers are available on election day. Council members asked whether the board could shift canvassing hours to do more counting on election day; the administrator said the board would consider proposals and returned that some canvassing rules are driven by state timing and by availability of trained staff.

The board also described logistics for early vote‑by‑mail processing, training of judges (the board works with state trainers and local contractors for “train‑the‑trainer” models) and the use of the county’s website and social media for recruitment and voter information; the administrator said the board is working to be more active online.

Why this matters: the board’s budgeting for elections and decisions about vote‑center location, staffing and counting cadence affect voter wait times, ballot processing speed and public confidence in results. The board agreed to review whether counting hours and staffing deployment could be adjusted to reduce evening backlogs and to provide the committee with options.