The day I was set to meet Ann Blacerzak to talk about running smooth elections in Howard County, I realized that she and I had a date and a time we’d be meeting up, but we hadn’t picked a rendezvous spot.

“Do you want to come to my house, Colleen?” she asked in a text message conversation on the topic. I’d told her that I was wary of places that were too loud for fear that the audio of our chats would be unintelligible on the recordings I made on both my iPhone and the digital voice recorder that Robert and I share for use while conducting interviews. I’m always, down, as the kids (or kids’ kids maybe) say, when someone suggests meeting at their home.

How glad I am that she invited me over to Casa Balcerzak! There, I had the best brownie I’ve ever had in my life and the best glass of water I’ve ever had in my life too. I’m Colleen–we all know I recount stories with a level of embellishment that would make Classical rhetorician and author of On the Sublime, Longinus, proud. But I’m telling you, Ann made a mean brownie and served it with an equally mean glass of water. As a slice of lemon cascaded to the bottom of my glass, we settled down on her roomy living room sofas to talk about what it takes to see that elections in Howard County are fair, precise, and quick.

We spent a lovely hour-and-a-half, chatting, laughing, and having our pictures taken by her husband, Stephen.

Back at the suite Robert and I are still saying in at the Sheraton in downtown Columbia, my hubby was glued to CSPAN. He sat erect on one of the beds, loosely gripping the television remote, as he so often does. He loves TV and keeps up with national politics too, unlike me on both counts. The sordid Michael Cohen testimony on it right then was not only way too depressing for me, but it was also distracting. I needed to jot down my musings on the incredible hour I spent with Ann. So, I elected–get it, elected?–to sit in the other room attached to the one we sleep in to collect and record thoughts.

Back to the Brownie

Related: See what John Byrd of HoCO Rec and Parks told me!

At Ann’s, after the first bite of that epic brownie, I simply had to savor a few following ones, so we shot the breeze (even though I’m an ardent gun violence prevention advocate) and   took it slow. I lifted the confection to my lips and pierced that delicate crust that forms on top. I felt a shiver of good guilt at breaking something gorgeous. I let go then, closed my eyes, and imagined falling into the gooey yet fluffy meat, if you will, of the brownie. This, I thought–this is how you make ingredients in a recipe work together to create a sensational symphony of olfactory, gustatory, and even kinesthetic bliss.

“What we do at the Board of Elections is really valuable, important work to the democracy,” Ann said as I came back to the present. “What you see when you’re doing this is ordinary citizens working together to run some pretty damn fine elections. It’s a synchronicity of everyone caring.”

‘It really is so many of benevolent forces working in unison to create a beautiful thing–like the ingredients in this brownie!” I said. Then I laughed, Ann laughed, and I think I may have even heard Stephen laugh from the an adjacent room.

Still Waters Run Deep

“Ann is a model of fairness and coolness under pressure. When you see the problems with voting all over the country, we should be grateful for people like Ann at the helm in Howard County,” Josh Friedman, a member of the Howard County Democratic Central Committee, told me in one of the rapid-fire Facebook direct messages we’re fond of.

Ann and Stephen’s home is so placid, in a quiet nook in Clarksville, too. They have a lovely view of what looked like a half an acre of towering trees. Ann said neighborhood children, including her two daughters when they were growing up, used to have lots of fun on the steep incline that stretched down toward the living room where we were sitting.

“It’s a really great place to toboggan,” she said smiling and sweeping her hand in front of the window to show me.

I put my brownie down and asked Ann to tell me about her background. She grew up outside Scranton, Pennsylvania in a small town called Carbondale. It was coal country. She went to Marywood College nearby and then got her Master’s degree in social work from there, too. For five years after, she trained major industries and organizations in Baltimore to institute programs that provided employees with services for alcoholism rehabilitation.

“I was so young I didn’t realize how dumb I was,” she said. I laughed because when someone in a cashmere sweater, matching gold earrings and necklace, a maddeningly trim figure, and a voice as delicate and light as Ann’s says something so self-deprecating it’s just downright fun.

“Yeah, you sort of just live life when you’re younger,” I came back.

Next, Ann, who’d always loved progressive politics and started one of the first Democratic clubs at Marywood got her law degree from Catholic University in Washinton, D.C in 1985.  Stephen, her husband, had left the Army so they could settle down here for her to do so. It was another instance of evolved and super-supportive husbands in HoCo that I loved. It reminded me of Bill Hester, Delegate Katie Fry Hester’s (D-9)  husband.

Ann and her friend, Marylen Bartlett, began a private law firm soon after.

And then a random but important point came up. Marylen’s son, Andrew, is an editor at Entertainment Tonight, which Robert has always loved. I texted him immediately about this piece of information vital to Robert Morgenthau! And who doesn’t love that theme song, right?

Elements of Elections

“I’m now the Vice President of the Board of Elections after two terms of as President. Martin O’Malley appointed me in 2010,” Ann said.

Running a smooth election is a dizzyingly complicated task, I gathered, animated by one central tension.

“Some people, understandably, want instantaneous voting, but we have to coordinate that with the security and safeguarding that enables the honestly and integrity of the voting,” Ann said. Luckily, the Board’s Director is none other than Guy Mickley.

“He’s our only have employee, Guy. I think he does a bang-up job of running elections,” Ann says as I leaned back in my suit and looked up at the vaulted ceiling of warm wood.

“Oh my god, Ann. He really does an incredible job,” I said. Guy’s skill at carrying out what to me seemed like a flawless elections was on display when I helped with the for the Hester/Bates (R) (routine) recount last November. In a warehouse space in East Columbia, which it turns out is the offices of the Board, Guy supervised as teams of two counted votes by hand into the wee hours of the morning. He wasn’t too busy for me to ask for a Board of Elections t-shirt, though. The staff present were all wearing them, and I simply had to have one. Alas, they’re official uniforms. Instead, Guy trotted out to a room off to the side of the front entrance and fetched me a 2018 Gubernatorial Primary lapel pin that is a wonderful substitute.

Ann smiled knowingly back on the subject of Guy and nodded as she said, “We supervise and evaluate him, but he actually is in charge of the staff.”

Inevitably, the topic of election security came up as it related to bad actors trying to swing the vote one way or another.

“Yes, we got pinged once,” Ann told me, meaning a hacker tried to gain access to the system. “The State Board of Elections handled this. They work hard at election security. Linda Lamont and her staff do a great job.”

Mission Impossible? Never!

Ann told me her mission on the Board of Elections is to ensure that every vote is counted fairly.

“In a more pragmatic sense, I want the office to be well-run, particularly so that people feel we’re accessible to them. Every single vote is precious,” Ann said.

I picked up my brownie and this time bit into a tantalizingly twisted walnut and emitted a spontaneous, “Oomph!” This got more laughs from my personal peanut gallery that day, Ann.

A hitch-free election is what Ann and her cohorts on the Board of Elections, like the President, Donna Thewes, are going for.

“I want to wake up the next morning and not see Howard County in the headlines,” she said, followed by a little chuckle by both of us. Well, mine wasn’t as dainty as hers, to be honest.

And of course, Ann said next, all of this–an election that takes place swimmingly–costs money.

“People would be surprised at how much money it takes,” Ann said. “The 2020 elections will have relatively high turnout. It’s a presidential election year and those always do.”

Aside from the nuts and bolts of elections, Ann said, like poll-books and training employees, the board uses funds to educate voters about how to register.

“Our goal is to make it easy for eligible voters to register and vote,” Ann said.

And: Katie Fry Hester on blazing a purple trail in Annapolis.

The Board has an obligation to educate people, Ann told me. One way the it hopes to do so in the coming months is to set up voter registration tables at places like local farmer’s markets. I thought that, in particular, was an inspired idea, which Ann told me with a proud smile that one of Guy’s staff members came up with.

“We’re also updating our website,” she said.

All Ballots Are Equal

Ann suspects that in the coming years the central tension she mentioned to me earlier, the one between having ease of access to voting and maintaining  secure  elections will continue.

One example is with the upcoming same day registration starting in the next presidential election.  Many election professionals think it may be good to have the people who register on election day–at least this first time–vote on a provisional ballot. This will allow the election staff  time to check their registrations. The provision ballots are all processed and counted but it gives staff time to see that the new voters are eligible to vote and to see that they voted in the correct district/precinct.

“It’s important for voters to know that provisional ballots are counted and that they are a good way to ensure a smooth process.  It may also help quell the fears of some that this will allow non-citizens to vote,” Ann said.

“If we want a safe and secure election, people might have to vote on a provisional ballot,” she said. “That way they get to vote and we get to ensure the elections are as secure as possible.

That’s all well and good, but I still had a third of my brownie from heaven to eat. I gave Ann a little nod to indicate I was reentering my confectionary reverie for a moment and looked at it. I felt that excitement that a bite was to come colored by a longing for more because I knew it’d be done soon. This time a little piece fell to the ground as I held it next to lips.

“I’m so sorry!” I said, muffled through a chunk of pastry heaven. Ann’s home is immaculate, and I felt awful for spilling on the spotless, beautiful rug at our feet.

“Oh, please…” she said, assuaging my guilt. She leaned over before I could and picked up the piece. With a flick of her wrist, she placed it back on my plate.

“You know, people have said to me, ‘If the election is already decided, do you really count all those provisional ballots, ‘Yes, we do!” Ann said, drawing out the “s” for emphasis.

Ann and the board sends a envoy out to the post office the morning after the election to get any last-minute arrival ballots.

“If an absentee ballot comes in without postage, we pay for it,” she said.

I could simply reply, “Wow.” They really do care about every vote, this board.

After polls close, the board gets back the voting machines, those gray behemoths. Every vote, Ann told me, has to be downloaded.

Next they count provisional ballots.

“If it were up to me, we’d get away from precinct-based voting to more like the early voting centers. I think that would be the best thing to happen,” Ann said. “If Ann ruled the world.” This made me laugh through a sip of water, and I slapped my chest to avoid choking. Ann also hopes the future of then Board of Elections will see an increase in educating HoCo-ans about why voting is so very important.

Ann sang the praises of early voting, saying it’s been a help to so many and it’s gaining  popularity each election cycle.

“We should explore the idea of running early voting up to and through election day. We would eliminate the many, many precincts we now have and have more early voting centers,” she said.

She thinks, too, she added, that we need to make sure that all voters have a way to get to an early voting center, even if  that m means providing transportation to those without cars.

“It’s important to remember that not everyone has a car and we need to help them get to a voting center,” Ann said.

“Voting is not just a fundamental right in a democracy, it’s the fundamental right,” I said. i meant it’s the foundation of all the other rights–of speech, assembly, due process, and more–that we cherish in a democracy.

A Day In the Life

“We meet on the fourth Monday of every month at the Board of Elections, which is where you went for the recount of the votes cast in the race for Senator in District 9′,” Ann said of a typical day at the office for her and her fellow Board-ers. “If you came down there, you’d see a lot of really great people doing a lot of administrative work.”

She said there’s a lot to do do to make sure elections happen the way they’re supposed to.

“We do logic and accuracy testing on the machines. We ask questions like, ‘Is this machine sturdy? Are the carts working properly?’ I know it sounds a little like watching paint dry,” Ann said. I actually don’t think it does. I widened my eyes and nodded “no.”

“Not at all,” I said. and my voice came out muffled through my last bite of brownie and behind my hand. I remembered how Robert always tells me that putting my hand up in front of my face doesn’t make talking with my mouth full any less appealing. Oh, well! Ann didn’t seem to mind.

It Takes All Kinds

Ann got up and told me to follow her to the kitchen. There she wrapped four more brownies in aluminum foil–avoiding the edges, because I’m not such of fan of them. Ann is, by the way. There really are just two kinds of people in the world, readers, aren’t there: people who like corner pieces and people who don’t. Luckily for all of them–or us, I should say–both have their voices heard in Howard County thanks to Ann and the rest of the staff at the Howard County Board of Elections.

As I drove home from Ann’s house to the Sheraton where Robert and I are staying in downtown Columbia until we find a permanent, affordable housing solution in Columbia (a topic to be covered in an upcoming rocoinhoco.com article), I broke into the aluminum foil the brownies were wrapped in. I smiled as I ate a piece, not just because they were delish, but because of something our good friend and local Democratic activist powerhouse Carole Fisher had said to me a couple days back.

“Ann has such a generosity of spirit and she’s so patient with me. She’s one of my BFFs,” she told me. I smiled because I felt the same about her generosity and patience after the hour I’d spent with her. Maybe one day she’d be one of my BFFs too!

Also: D’ont miss Robert’s chat with local environmental educator and activist Chiara D’Amore.

Thanks for reading! Check back with us here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.