With perhaps the most important and hotly contested congressional election in more than a decade finally here, serious concerns still loom about the voting process’ credibility, calling into question everything from voting machine malfunctions to an overabundance of absentee ballots.

To some degree, worries about voters being disenfranchised today are the inevitable result of a race that could shift the balance of power in Washington, possibly unseating a Republican majority that has held sway in both houses of Congress since 1994. Polls measuring the race between Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) have narrowed within the margin of error in the past few days, placing Maryland in the small pool of states that will decide the majority in the Senate. As a result, election watchers are on high alert as they attempt to avoid new problems, including accusations of racially charged voter intimidation, and alleviate those that marred the primaries.

“When you have a close race, everything is scrutinized,” said government and politics professor Ronald Walters.

“That’s what happened in Florida in the 2000 election cycle,” he added, raising the specter of the Florida recount that ended in defeat for then-Vice President Al Gore and has ever since been held up as an example of flawed voting procedure.

Despite assurances from the Maryland State Board of Elections that kinks in the primary voting in September will not reappear, many are still skeptical of the state’s ability to conduct a smooth election.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Cardin said, “I am not convinced that they know how to run this election so that voters will not be inconvenienced to a point where they don’t participate.”

During the primaries almost every precinct in Montgomery County opened without the voter authorization cards to activate voting machines.

The voter check-in machines caused delays as well, spontaneously rebooting while encoding voter access cards. Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator of the State Board of Elections, said the state has worked with voting machine manufacturer Diebold to avoid similar delays today.

“We know that we’ve identified and resolved that problem,” Goldstein said.

But Walters echoed Cardin’s skepticism of the election board’s claim.

“They’re going to be very optimistic about it,” Walters said, “Because they’re going to be in a lot of trouble if it isn’t OK.”

Walters also predicted more dubious interference with the voting process, suggesting a Republican strategy to question people’s voter status at the polls is aimed at blocking the black vote, a demographic that has historically leaned Democratic.

“This is a form of intimidation,” Walters said, referring to a 13-page Election Day handbook Maryland Republicans have issued advising poll watchers to act aggressively in challenging voter credentials.

A number of organizations, including the NAACP, have raised concerns over the guidebook, and Walters said Prince George’s County would be a likely setting for voter intimidation at the polls since 64 percent of the population is black.

Republicans have defended the handbook, saying their efforts are an honest attempt to prevent voter fraud.

However, even if today’s polling goes smoothly, there is no guarantee the results will be known tonight. Since Gov. Robert Ehrlich urged voters to avoid electronic voting machines, Maryland election officials have received an unprecedented number of requests for absentee ballots – the number was approaching 200,000 last night, Goldstein said.

If that figure exceeds the margin between candidates, the results could be left in doubt until the absentee ballots are counted. And that process wouldn’t begin until Thursday, Goldstein said.

“If there are as many [absentee ballots] as we believe there are and the race is close as we expect it to be, then we’ll be waiting” to call the race, said CBS Director of Surveys Kathleen Frankovic, who handles public relations for Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International, the company that will conduct exit polls for the networks. In the past, Frankovic said, absentee ballots have held election results until after Thanksgiving in some states.

Contact reporter Andrew Vanacore at vanacoredbk@gmail.com.