With nearly all mail ballots counted, Elrich has narrow lead in Montgomery County executive race
Ballot counting will continue — and could conclude — today in Montgomery County.
After canvassers counted nearly 5,000 ballots on Friday, County Executive Marc Elrich (D) led challenger David Blair by 198 votes in the Democratic primary for county executive.
Elrich had 39.29%, with 53,224 votes. Blair had 39.14%, with 53,026 votes.
Canvassers are expected to meet again starting at 10 a.m. Saturday morning to count provisional ballots. Provisional ballots — which are most often given to voters who have a question about eligibility on Election Day or who lost, damaged or made mistakes on mail ballots — take time for bipartisan canvassers and election staff to process and research. There were more than 8,000 provisional ballot applications in the county this election.
The only mail ballots left to count in the county are those that require “signature curing,” where voters did not sign their ballot before sending it in. County elections officials have made multiple attempts to reach those voters; the deadline for them to respond is noon on Saturday.
County elections officials have said the ballot-counting could finish on Saturday.
Elrich won election in 2018 after defeating Blair in the Democratic primary by 77 votes.
Danielle E. Gaines
Editor-in-chief
Danielle Gaines covered government and politics for Maryland Matters for two years before moving into an editing position. Previously, she spent six years at The Frederick News-Post ― as the paper’s principal government and politics reporter for half that time, covering courts and legal affairs before that. She also reported for the now-defunct The Gazette of Politics and Business in Maryland and previously worked as a county government and education reporter at The Merced Sun-Star in California’s Central Valley.
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