Maryland was not granted a waiver by FVAP, but instead it withdrew its application because it decided that it would mail a federal only ballot to Maryland servicemembers at least 45 days before the election.  It is not supposed to be a write-in ballot like the one being used in Wisconsin.
 
If this is true, then Maryland believes that it can hold an election on Sept. 14 and have ballots ready 4 days later on September 18.  Maryland is rolling the dice–if any of the federal races are close, then there is no way that they are going to be able to certify the election and send out the ballots in time. 

But here is the creepy part.  If the Maryland state government actually adopts this policy, they may harm Bob Ehrlich’s surging campaign against Governor Martin O’Malley.  Why?  Because all those military voters won’t have a ballot for state contests like Governor.  The federal law does not require state contests to be on the UOCAVA ballots, but most states have the decency to include all of the contests on the ballot sent to military voters.  If Maryland indeed follows through on plans to only send a blank federal write in ballots, or federal contests only, this will be a true shame.  Some states are more decent than others.