After a hiccup with mail-in ballots that attracted the ire of President Donald Trump and a host of Maryland GOP officeholders and candidates, Tuesday’s primary election proceeded with relative ease in the state.
“Overall, it was smooth and boring, which is two words election administrators love,” said Jared DeMarinis, the state administrator of elections.
Most major races were easy to call before the clock struck midnight, with a combination of early votes and Election Day results.
Tuesday brought a few apparent defeats that were surprising, including for state Sen. Nancy King (D-Montgomery), the Senate majority leader, who trailed challenger Amar Mukunda, a Montgomery County native and a combat engineer, 49% to 36% by Wednesday evening.
Del. Stephanie Smith (D-Baltimore City), a two-term delegate from the 45th District, will lose her seat if she can’t close a 440-vote gap separating her from former Del. Chanel Branch. And Sen. Dalya Attar (D-Baltimore City), who was indicted last year on a federal extortion charge, appears headed to defeat by Del. Malcolm Ruff (D-Baltimore City), who held a 60% to 40% lead Wednesday.
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, there were still more than 181,000 mail-in ballots left to be counted statewide — and more ballots could still arrive. They will count, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. In total, Marylanders requested over half a million ballots.
But Wednesday still brought the typical parade of concessions, reluctant second-place finishers and victory laps.
By Wednesday afternoon, Total Wine & More magnate and former U.S. Rep. David Trone had conceded the race for the 6th District in the U.S. House to incumbent Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) after a bitter primary. In a post on his campaign site, he thanked supporters but said the effort fell short.
In the 5th District, two of the top five Democratic candidates seeking to represent the 5th Congressional District released or posted statements on social media letting their supporters know they had conceded to Del. Adrian Boafo (D-Prince George’s), who had the backing of the retiring U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, and who had received a late influx of PAC cash.
Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and former Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III both said they respect the voters’ decision.
“Now it’s time to come together, unite as Democrats, and focus on the work ahead — protecting our values, defending our democracy, and building a stronger future for Maryland families,” Baker wrote on his Facebook page.
But other Maryland candidates were more reluctant to wave the white flag — sometimes because of the high volume of mail-in ballots remaining.
In Baltimore County, for instance, a spokesperson said Izzy Patoka, a councilman running for county executive, has not conceded to Julian Jones, another county councilman, who led with 41% of the vote to Patoka’s 27%, in a five-way race.
“We believe there are a significant number of mail ballots to be counted at the moment and that the race is too early to definitively call,” said campaign spokesperson Jarid Matthews.
In the Montgomery County executive race, second-place candidate Andrew Friedson hadn’t conceded to leader Will Jawando on account of mail-in ballots, though he admitted in a Facebook post Wednesday that “the math ahead of us is undeniably difficult.”
But in Howard County, former Del. Vanessa Atterbeary’s victory was a bit more convincing. She garnered 57% of the primary vote and, with no opponent registered for the general election, is well on her way to becoming the first Black woman to lead the county. Atterbeary’s margin of victory was noted Wednesday by one of her primary challengers.
“The good thing about getting trounced is it doesn’t leave a whole lotta room for second-guessing or what-ifs,” wrote County Councilwoman Liz Walsh in a statement on Facebook. “Of course, I wish the Vanessa Atterbeary campaign the very best.”
Campaigns will receive word on the next round of mail-in ballots Thursday.
DeMarinis said Wednesday that the misprinted mail-in ballots should not have a significant effect on the time it takes to finish the count. Local boards of elections can begin officially certifying the election results July 6.
State board of elections officials realized in mid-May that their mail-in ballot vendor had mistakenly sent some voters the ballot for the wrong political party. To rectify the error, every mail-in voter received a replacement ballot, and was asked to throw out the original ones.
So far, it appears, DeMarinis said, that a “manageable” number of voters cast their ballots using the original ballot that they received.
Election officials will look to see whether these voters submitted their replacement ballots, or voted provisionally. If not, their original ballot will be counted — unless they voted in the wrong party’s primary. In that event, their ballot would be tossed, though any votes in nonpartisan school board races would be counted, DeMarinis said.
With a tight turnaround for the general election — ballots must be printed in early September — the state likely won’t change its mail-in ballot vendor in response to the snafu, DeMarinis said. But the state will conduct a “lessons learned” proceeding to try and prevent the issue in the future.
“We’re more likely than not to be using the same vendor, but with enhanced quality control checks and other safeguards,” he said.
As state elections officials continued their work, Gov. Wes Moore was celebrating the results during a Wednesday news conference in Annapolis. Moore himself did not face a significant Democratic primary challenge. But he endorsed Democrats in races all across the state, and contributed to campaigns using his “Leave No One Behind” slate. Statewide, 93.4% of his supported candidates won or were in the lead Wednesday, according to his campaign.
“We showed last night that democracy works. We showed last night that we have free and fair and transparent elections inside of the state of Maryland,” Moore told reporters on Lawyers’ Mall.
Among the Moore-endorsed candidates trailing as of Wednesday afternoon:
- Drew Morrison for Montgomery County Council District 1 in third and final place with 2,932 votes, or 18.1% of the total vote;
- Mandy Remmell for Baltimore County Council District 1 in second place among three candidates with 2,407 votes, or 40.7% of the total vote;
- Baltimore City Sheriff Sam Cogen lost with 19,806 votes, or 44.4% of the vote total against Sabrina Tapp-Harper with 24,753 votes, or 55.5% of the vote total; and
- Antwan Brown for Prince George’s County register of wills in third place among 11 candidates with 9,917 votes, or 13.9% of the vote total.
— Maryland Matters reporters Danielle Brown, Will Hammann and Mayah Nachman contributed to this report.
