Baltimore certifies primary election results after 2 weeks of ballot counting
BALTIMORE — The Baltimore City Board of Elections certified the results of the 2024 primary Tuesday, bringing to an end an election that carried on for two weeks after Election Day.
The board convened Tuesday morning for the certification vote which was delayed Friday, a tentative date set by state officials for local boards across the state to certify their results. City election officials announced Friday evening that they had to delay the vote to allow time for mandated audits. All city ballot counting was completed by Friday.
There is no penalty for missing the Friday deadline, although lengthy delays can postpone the state board’s certification of results.
More than 96,000 Baltimoreans cast ballots in the primary which included all-but-settled contests for presidential nominees, but also closely contested races for U.S. Senate nominees and Baltimore mayor, City Council president and City Council. The primary often decides citywide races in heavily Democratic Baltimore.
The races for U.S. Senate and Baltimore mayor were called by election night. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks prevailed over Congressman David Trone for the Democratic Senate nomination. Alsobrooks will face former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in the fall. Locally, one-term Mayor Brandon Scott handily beat former Mayor Sheila Dixon, ending her third effort to reclaim her office.
The races for several seats on the Baltimore City Council, however, extended for almost two weeks as election staff continued to count thousands of mail-in ballots and provisional ballots cast by voters at in-person election voting locations. Winners in West Baltimore’s District 8 and South Baltimore’s District 11 council races did not declare victory until Thursday when officials finished the bulk of the ballot counting. Jermaine Jones, who ousted incumbent Councilman Robert Stokes to represent Central and East Baltimore’s District 12, did not declare victory until Friday night.
Adding to the suspense of the 2024 primary was an error discovered in the initial Election Day results posted by the Baltimore City Board of Elections. The board overreported an extra 584 votes cast on Election Day. The discrepancy, found the next day during a routine audit, was the result of city officials failing to upload results from three ballot scanners and twice uploading results from five other precincts, the Maryland State Board of Elections said last week.
The error affected 10 precincts and significantly shifted results in the District 11 race. Initial returns showed Councilman Eric Costello leading by 25 votes, but he expanded that lead to 87 votes once the Election Day results were re-tabulated. With all ballots counted, Costello ultimately lost to challenger Zac Blanchard by 48 votes.
Once an election is certified, it starts the clock for any candidate who wishes to challenge the results. A losing candidate has three days to file a petition for a recount. Such a candidate must pay for the process, unless the difference between the top two candidates is less than 0.25% or the winner in the race changes as a result of the recount. The District 11 race, Baltimore’s closest, does not fall within a 0.25% margin.
Certification also begins a 30-day window for candidates who received public financing in Baltimore to return any unspent funds. Blanchard received money from the city’s newly operational fair elections fund as did mayoral candidate Thiru Vignarajah and council president candidate Shannon Sneed.
-------
©2024 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
