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Election 2022

In Montgomery County, Blair takes narrow lead as ballot counting continues

Businessman David Blair took a slight lead in the race for Montgomery County executive over incumbent Marc Elrich (D) as more votes were tabulated Monday. File photo by Danielle E. Gaines.

David Blair, the Montgomery County businessman challenging County Executive Marc Elrich in the Democratic primary, took a narrow lead in the race Monday evening, as the county continued to tabulate results from mail-in ballots.

The results, as they are posted to a statewide results website, have shown an alternating leader in the race since Tuesday’s primary.

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Montgomery County was one of a handful of jurisdictions still tallying votes in an initial mail-in ballot canvass on Monday.

Alysoun McLaughlin, the county’s elections director, said her office is planning to finish counting the majority of ballots by the middle of next week and certify the results by Aug. 12.

The county has received about 68,975 mail ballots and reported more than 37,000 results to the state in marquee races, including governor and county executive.

Throughout the state, boards of elections, including those that have finished an initial mail-in ballot canvass, will gather on Wednesday to process provisional ballots and again on Friday to continue mail-in ballot counts.

Throughout the state, 514,825 mail ballots were sent to voters and 308,589 had been reported returned as of Sunday evening. The results from tens of thousands of returned mail ballots must still be reported.

In Baltimore City, officials indicated that an initial mail-in ballot canvass wrapped up on Monday. Elections Director Armstead Jones said the city would continue to add results for additional provisional and mail ballots later in the week and would likely have full results to report by Friday.

“We have extra people coming in to help to get it done,” he said.

The city is home to a closely watched tight race to represent District 45 in the House of Delegates.

As of Monday at 10 p.m., Jackie Addison led in the vote total, with 25.33% of the vote.

Del. Stephanie Smith, chair of the city’s House delegation, was narrowly in second place, 44 votes ahead of challenger Caylin Young.

Del. Chanel Branch (D) was close behind Young, by 99 votes.

The top three finishers when all votes are counted will go on to the general election, where Democrats are likely to prevail.

Prince George’s County also continues to tabulate ballots, but had not posted new results as of 10 p.m. Monday.

There are a number of close legislative races in that county as well.

In the District 26 Senate race, Tamara Davis Brown, who is making her fourth run for public office and was almost elected to the Prince George’s County Council four years ago, narrowly trailed former state Sen. C. Anthony Muse, who is trying to win back his old seat.

As of Monday at 10 p.m., Muse had 9,539 votes to Brown’s 9,185.

In the District 23 House race, 222 votes separated three candidates vying for two seats in the three-member district.

Incumbent Marvin E. Holmes Jr. (D) held a comfortable lead in the race at 16.21%.

As of Monday night, the three challengers for the remaining two seats were closely matched: Adrian Boafo had 14.27%, Kym Taylor had 14.08%, and Jocelyn Irene Collins had 13.88%.

In District 24, Tiffany Alston led LaTasha Ward by 128 votes for the third spot in a three-member district.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to correctly identify District 23. 

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In Montgomery County, Blair takes narrow lead as ballot counting continues