(2007)

Dear Linda Lamone

You have requested our opinion concerning the wording of the oath completed by a voter who casts an absentee ballot. Your question is prompted by the Court of Appeals decision in Lamone v. Capozzi,396 Md. 53, 912 A.2d 674 (2006), which held that a statute authorizing voting in advance of election day violated the Maryland Constitution. In the course of that decision, the Court construed Article I, § 3, the constitutional provision authorizing absentee ballots, to pertain only to "`absent' voters, not those who find the voting day to be inconvenient."

In our opinion, the…