Count all ballots by hand in small precincts where poll watchers can watch.
NEVER vote by mail in Maryland. They allow ‘volunteers’ (candidate henchmen) to ‘cure’ the mail-in ballots before running thru the tabulator. They sit in a large school gym at separate tables without oversight and commit fraud. It was caught on camera live, 2018 I believe. The volunteer looked around both ways, guilty as heck, before coloring in the ballot - wish I could find the video.
Not here in the People’s Republic.