Nominee to Maryland elections board questioned after predecessor resigned amid Capitol riot charges

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland lawmakers on Monday questioned a Republican candidate for the state election board, specifically asking about her whereabouts on Jan. 6, 2021, after a former board member resigned amid charges of participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

By questioning Diane Butler during a hearing in the state Senate, the panel of Democratic-controlled lawmakers followed through on a pledge to be more cautious in the confirmation process when considering replacing the former Republican election board official. who resigned in January.

“I had just gotten back from Florida, visiting with my daughter, and I was cleaning out my fish tank because there was a lot of stuff in there while I was away,” Butler said when asked where she was on Jan. 6. 2021. “I was home.”

Members of the Maryland Senate Executive Nominations Committee have said they will be more diligent after failing to ask any questions of Carlos Ayala, who resigned from his position on the Board of Elections in January after being indicted in federal court. He is charged with civil disorder, a misdemeanor and multiple felonies for allegedly participating in the riot while Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Sen. Clarence Lam, a Democrat, also asked Butler about a screenshot of a Facebook page he said his office received that appeared to be hers regarding pandemic mask guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The message claiming to be from you stated that you responded with the comment: ‘What’s next? Nazi bracelets?’ Is that something you remember posting in the past?” Lam asked.

When Butler replied, “No, I don’t remember,” Lam asked again.

‘It could have been mine. I think there were a lot of different thoughts about the masks, and I think people had a lot of thoughts in the beginning,” Butler said.

Butler, who served as a county elections official in the state, faced a variety of questions about her beliefs in the integrity of the state election process.

Butler appeared before a Senate panel that votes on the governor’s nominees for positions in state government, including the five-member Maryland State Board of Elections.

The minority party, in Maryland the Republican Party, nominates two members to the state’s governor, who forwards the nomination to the Senate for consideration.

Lam also asked Butler if she thought fraud “is a major problem in Maryland elections,” and she said “no.” Butler also said she did not believe there was illegal interference in previous elections in the state.

Asked for her thoughts on mail-in ballots, Butler said she believed “it can be done extremely well,” and she thought Maryland had done a “good job with it under the circumstances we had” during the pandemic.