ANNAPOLIS (AP) — Legislation to create early voting in Maryland cleared the General Assembly late Monday night, and Gov. Martin O’Malley has indicated he will sign the bill.

For 2010, early voting will be allowed for six days, beginning on the second Friday through Thursday before the election, but not on the Sunday that falls between them.

An early voting site to be chosen six months before the primary election. The bill also authorizes a local board to establish an early voting site at a shopping mall.

The measure establishes early voting for the 2012 presidential election, with the voting period beginning on the second Saturday through the Thursday before an election and including Sunday.

The bill strikes a provision that would have taken about $2 million from the state’s public campaign financing fund to help pay the costs of getting early voting started. The proposal ignited an outcry from Republicans who said the campaign financing fund for gubernatorial elections was being drained down to nearly nothing.

Now, it’s unclear where the money will come from to get early voting off the ground.

Voters approved early voting in Maryland in a constitutional amendment in November with about 71 percent of the vote.

Supporters say more convenient voting will increase turnout, but opponents fear it will increase opportunity for voter fraud.

More than 30 states allow early voting, but a Maryland law that did so was struck down by the state’s highest court in 2006. That’s what made the constitutional amendment necessary to move forward with legislation.

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On the Net:

Read House Bill 1179: http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/billfile/HB1179.htm