Rather than print new ballots before next month’s primary, Maryland elections officials decided Thursday to notify Democratic voters that former candidate Kevin Kamenetz has died and that a vote for him will be counted as vote for Valerie Ervin, his former running mate.

The state Board of Elections has said that it could not print new ballots to reflect Ervin’s last-minute gubernatorial candidacy largely because a single paper mill makes the only paper that Maryland’s voting machines can read.

Officials say they checked with the mill in upstate New York and it won’t have any more of the special paper available until the fourth week of June — that is, election week. Election officials had proposed the notification solution earlier this week to the Democratic candidates in the June 26 election, but were met with concerns about sowing confusion and of giving Ervin’s campaign additional attention.

Ervin said she is not satisfied with the state’s plan and is exploring a potential legal challenge.

“They never got sign-off from us,” the Montgomery County Democrat said.

Any notifications posted in polling places will only further confuse voters, she said.

“It will impact the results of the election, whoever wins,” Ervin said.

Nikki Charlson, Maryland’s deputy elections administrator, said adding a new candidate’s name to ballots after they’ve already been printed is not a simple task. Sure, Charlson said, anyone can photocopy a $20 bill but that doesn’t mean it’s legal money. It’s the same for ballot paper.

“We can take it to Kinkos and make copies of it,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they’re going to get counted by the machines correctly.”

The elections board on Thursday distributed two pages of instructions to local elections authorities telling them to distribute a notice to voters describing how they can vote for Ervin and her running mate, Marisol Johnson.

“If you wish to vote for Valerie Ervin and Marisol Johnson, mark your ballot for Kevin Kamenetz and Valerie Ervin,” the notice reads. “All votes cast for Kevin Kamenetz and Valerie Ervin will be counted as votes for Valerie Ervin and Marisol Johnson.”

The notice will be placed in every voting booth, published online and shared on social media.

“That’s not going to cut it,” Ervin said of the signage.

She expressed frustration with state Elections Administrator Linda Lamone.

“They can try to move this forward, but I think there’s going to be more pushback,” Ervin said. “She needs to fix it and there’s still time. … She wants to hurry it up because she’s wrong.”

Earlier Ervin said the paper-mill issue was a paper-thin excuse.

“They’re grasping at straws at this point,” the Montgomery County Democrat said. “We live in a modern world. There are ways to ship paper. … I’m waiting to see what other excuses they have.”

Ervin decided to run after Kamenetz died suddenly May 10.

The former Montgomery County Councilwoman said she’s had conversations with attorneys “who believe we have solid grounds to stand on” to get her name on the ballot.

Ervin did not say what type of legal challenge she may mount but indicated that it might not be resolved until after the primary. Still, she said such a challenge would be important to pursue to help resolve future problems associated with having to make last-minute changes to ballots.

Charlson said Maryland’s voting system relies on carefully calibrated printing to ensure there are no errors when the hand-marked paper ballots are counted by machines. “There are very strict tolerances for ballot printing because you can’t afford to have mistakes,” Charlson said.

Then there’s the paper, which is manufactured by Memphis-based International Paper. The state ordered paper for 1.5 million ballots months ago from the company’s Ticonderoga, N.Y., paper mill.

“It’s not even paper you can just buy on the market,” Charlson said.

In December 2014, the Maryland Board of Public Works awarded a $28 million contract to Election Systems and Software to build the state’s new voting system. The company’s system requires the use of a unique paper it developed to work with its counting machines. It calls the paper “CountRight.”

The company says the paper is specially calibrated to have the right thickness, opacity, brightness, smoothness and weight to be read by its machines.

A spokesman for International Paper declined to comment.

Charlson said elections officials are focusing their efforts on educating voters. The state board will aim to get the message about Kamenetz’s death and Ervin’s replacement to every single voter.

“Our focus is how do we educate the voters about this change?” Charlson said. “We can do that.”

The state’s explanation also did not satisfy Alec Ross’ campaign. Ervin’s Democratic rival has been urging the state to reprint the ballots and says his campaign has found printers that could do the job in time.

“The first time they were saying they can’t print it in time. Now it’s about paper,” said Daniel Ensign, a spokesman for Ross. “It seems to be changing every time.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this article.

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