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The Frederick County Board of Elections will run the city's 2009 elections after all.

The board voted unanimously Monday to reverse its Dec. 3 decision not to run the elections, ending more than two weeks of tension and uncertainty between city and county officials.

The meeting was scheduled after the Maryland Board of Public Works voted Dec. 17 to extend the state's voting machine contract with Premier Election Solutions, of Allen, Texas. Premier will continue providing touch-screen voting machines to Maryland until at least June 30, 2009, with two three-month renewal options.

That enabled local elections boards to have access to voting machines — addressing the Frederick County Board of Elections' primary reason for bowing out of the city's elections, which it has run for years.

"One of the major problems we had — not having a [voting] system — has been eliminated … With the voting system in place, we're here today to reconsider our decision not to handle the elections for the city," said Mark Jeffers, president of the Frederick County Board of Elections, before the Monday vote.

Frederick Mayor W. Jeff Holtzinger (R) said he is glad the board overturned its previous decision, and that he had no hard feelings against its members.

"I'm pleased at the vote, and I believe they will work with us," he said of the board. "They had some issues to figure out that mostly had to do with the availability of the voting machines. I'm very appreciative of the vote."

The board voted to reverse its Dec. 3 decision, though it stipulated several new responsibilities the city will take on for the elections. The city will now handle candidacy filings and campaign finance reports, and will be responsible for finding polling places because Frederick County Public Schools will not host the elections.

School officials made clear after the 2005 elections that they no longer want their schools used as polling places for municipal elections, citing safety concerns for students. The schools do not close for city elections.

"That's going to cause some problems for us because we'll need to find new polling centers — perhaps churches, community centers, fire halls," Holtzinger said.

The city will also have to balance out the number of voters in each of its 12 precincts, according to Stuart Harvey, director of the Frederick County Board of Elections.

"Due to an increase in voter registration, the city's precincts are pretty heavily unbalanced," he said. "… Some have under 2,000 voters, while two have more than 4,000."