By Adam Pagnucco.
As a lot of you know, I worked for David Blair in the 2022 county executive campaign. The primary election was held on July 19, but due to an extremely close race, we did not learn the outcome for more than a month. Mail ballots were counted over ten business days (with many non-consecutive) and provisional ballots were counted over three more business days (with a gap of six days between the final two). I told the story of watching the ballots get counted back in December 2022.
This year, there are a few close(ish) races around the state. MoCo’s school board races in Districts 2 and 4 and Cecil County’s Republican primary for county executive are not quite decided. Baltimore City’s council races in Districts 8 (53 vote margin), 11 (25 votes!) and 12 (140 votes) are tight. With mail ballots rising to new popularity in the wake of the pandemic, will this year see another excruciating long count?
Maybe not.
The biggest single reason is the passage of SB379/HB535 in 2023, a bill lead sponsored by Senator Cheryl Kagan and Delegate Jessica Feldmark that greatly expedited the counting of mail ballots in addition to other improvements. The bill’s fiscal and policy note describes its provisions on mail ballot counting:
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The bill replaces a provision that prohibits a local board of elections from opening any envelope of an absentee ballot prior to 8:00 a.m. on the Wednesday following Election Day with a provision that instead requires a local board to begin processing absentee ballots on the day that is eight business days before the first day of early voting. The State Administrator of Elections may grant a waiver from this requirement if a local board seeks a determination by the State Administrator that early canvassing is not (1) necessary due to the low number of absentee ballots received by the local board or (2) practicable due to limited resources or other constraints on the local board. The bill also authorizes a local board to conduct vote tallying (recording of votes cast by individual voters on a certified voting system) when absentee ballots are processed; however, a local board or an employee of a local board is prohibited from conducting absentee ballot vote tabulation (aggregation of votes to produce vote totals) before the polls open on Election Day. The bill also prohibits a local board from releasing absentee ballot vote totals before the polls close on Election Day. The bill clarifies that an existing requirement – that a local board prepare and release a report of the unofficial results/returns of the absentee vote tabulation at the end of each day of canvassing – applies after the polls close on Election Day.
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I asked Boris Brajkovic, the county’s election director, about the county’s process for counting votes and how long he believed it would take. On Friday, Brajkovic replied:
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The number of days needed to canvass returned mail-in ballots is highly dependent on:
- the total number of returned mail-in ballots and
- the number of returned web delivery print-at-home ballots.
While Montgomery County voters have already returned 46,799 mail-in ballots, we still expect a significant number of mail-in ballots to be returned by the time the polls close at 8 PM on Election Day.
This expectation is based on the number of mail-in ballots returned the last week before the 2022 Primary and General Elections.
We expect to canvass more than 50% of already received mail-in ballots before Election Day.
To encourage your readers to return their mail-in ballots, please suggest that they text BOX plus their Zip code to 77788 (example: BOX 20879) to locate a nearby Election Drop Box.
Scheduled canvass days are available at the following link Primary Election Mail-In Ballot Canvass – Board of Elections – Montgomery County, Maryland (montgomerycountymd.gov)
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That was on Friday. At this writing, the Montgomery County Board of Elections has already received 55,721 mail ballots as of May 14 and accepted (counted) 30,845 of them. Statewide, the county boards have received 324,386 mail ballots as of May 14 and accepted (counted) 146,840 of them. So the Kagan/Feldmark legislation is working as intended.
Additionally, the State Board of Elections posted this statement on Tuesday:
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Maryland State Board of Elections Provides Election Results Release Schedule
Election Day results will be updated periodically on the SBE website https://www.elections.maryland.gov/.
ANNAPOLIS (May 14, 2024) – Today, May 14 is Primary Presidential Election Day in Maryland. Polling locations are open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Once all polling locations are confirmed to be closed, Maryland’s State Administrator will authorize election results to be released. The first set of results released will include all votes cast during the 8-day early voting period, mail-in ballots canvassed prior to election day, and any available election day results.
Election Day results will be updated periodically on the Maryland State Board of Elections website – https://www.elections.maryland.gov/– as they are received. In addition, ballots that have been returned to the local boards of elections, but not yet canvassed, will be updated beginning Thursday when canvass resumes.
Mail-In Ballot Canvass will resume on Thursday, May 16 at 10 a.m. in all local board of election offices. Provisional Ballot Canvass will begin on Wednesday, May 22 in all LBEs. Results will be updated continuously during the 10-day post-election period until local boards have canvassed all eligible ballots and the results are certified on May 24, 2024.
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So yes, there will be a few very close races that will take a bit of time to call. But thanks to the General Assembly (and especially Senator Kagan and Delegate Feldmark), this should not be like the water torture we experienced in the county executive election of two years ago.