ANNAPOLIS — Local election boards across Maryland went back to counting mail-in ballots Thursday, and in Southern Maryland a handful of down-ballot races remain close enough that the remaining ballots could decide who wins.
Marylanders requested nearly 659,000 mail-in ballots for the general election, and more than 230,000 were still waiting to be counted statewide as of Wednesday, the State Board of Elections said. Ballots postmarked on or before Election Day still count if they arrive by 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13.
The tightest local contest is for the last of three seats on Calvert County’s Orphans’ Court, where the gap stood at 83 votes. Every figure below comes from unofficial results on the state elections site as of 10:35 a.m. Thursday, which reflect early voting, Election Day and the mail-in ballots counted so far. None of these results is final.
Calvert Orphans’ Court: 83 votes
Voters pick three judges for Calvert’s Orphans’ Court, which handles wills, estates and the property of minors. Republican Leslie M. Downs leads with 18,370 votes. Republican Ted LeBlanc holds the third seat with 17,106, just ahead of Democrat Rick Piereck at 17,023.
The mail-in ballots counted so far have broken differently from in-person votes. Piereck has 2,156 mail-in votes to LeBlanc’s 1,065. Whether the remaining ballots follow that pattern is not known until they are counted. The Chronicle’s earlier Calvert results story flagged the race as tight.
Charles school board, District 1: 185 votes
Four candidates are running for two District 1 seats on the Charles County Board of Education. Bernadette Smith leads with 6,049 votes. Shawna Marks holds the second seat with 5,419, 185 votes ahead of Henry Thompson at 5,234. Incumbent board Vice Chairperson Samichie K. Thomas trails with 3,187.
Among mail-in ballots counted so far, Marks has 384 and Thompson 313.
St. Mary’s Orphans’ Court and Calvert school board
Two other races have wider margins but a mail-in pattern worth watching.
In St. Mary’s County’s Orphans’ Court race, also for three seats, Republican Bill Mattingly leads with 20,352 votes, followed by Republicans Albert “Allie” Babcock at 17,102 and Michael R. White at 16,152. Democrat Curtis J. King is fourth at 15,302, 850 votes behind White. King has 1,533 mail-in votes so far to White’s 695.
In Calvert’s at-large school board race, where voters choose two, Lisa Grenis leads with 14,286 and Jana Post is second with 13,270. Dona Cox Ostenso trails Post by 1,198 votes at 12,072, and Anne Jones has 11,854. Ostenso and Jones have each drawn about twice as many mail-in votes as Grenis and Post so far.
The top races in all three counties are not close. Republicans lead every commissioner race in Calvert and St. Mary’s, and Democrats lead in Charles, by margins far larger than the ballots still out.
When results could change
Each county board sets its own canvass schedule, and the boards do not count at the same hour. The St. Mary’s County Board of Elections scheduled its post-Election Day mail-in canvass for 10 a.m. Thursday, its provisional ballot canvass for 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, and its final canvass for 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13, all at its Leonardtown office. Calvert and Charles post their schedules on their election board websites.
Local boards release updated totals each day they count, and the state posts them on its results site as they come in. Canvasses are open to the public; observers must sign in and follow the boards’ rules. Results become official only when each local board certifies them after the final canvass.
