Updated Wednesday at 12:05 a.m.: This blog gives an overview of all election night events. For more detailed coverage of each these results, see our articles about the Senate, 6th Congressional District, school board and Circuit Court races.
Updated Tuesday at 10:11 p.m.: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin, the Associated Press has reported.
“I am officially your Democratic nominee in Maryland’s Senate race,” Alsobrooks posted on social media at about 10 p.m.
Alsobrooks defeated U.S. Rep David Trone of Potomac (D-District 6), who funneled more than $61.75 million of his personal fortune into his campaign treasury, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Alsobrooks received praise on social media from multiple fellow Democrats as well as a statement from Cardin.
“Congratulations to Angela Alsobrooks, who will be the next senator from Maryland. She will make the difference in keeping a Democratic majority in the Senate and restoring reproductive rights,” Cardin said in a statement. “Both Angela Alsobrooks and David Trone ran strong campaigns that upheld Democratic values. I am confident that Marylanders will come together now to protect women’s rights, increase public safety, and maintain a Democratic majority that will hold the line against Republican extremists. A vote for any Republican candidate for senator is a vote for a Republican-controlled Senate, and the country cannot afford for that to happen. Let’s do this!”
In the 6th Congressional District race, April McClain Delaney has been declared the winner of the Democratic nomination, according to the Associated Press.
State Del. Joe Vogel (D-District 17) has conceded and vowed to support McClain Delaney.
In other election news, Montgomery Board of Education incumbents Lynne Harris (At-Large) and Shebra Evans (District 4) are likely to advance to the November general election while District 2 board member Rebecca Smondrowski appeared likely to lose her bid for a fourth term, according to results from the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Fourteen candidates were running for three open seats on the school board. Candidates run in separate races by district, but all eligible voters can vote for a board member for each seat, regardless of party affiliation or where they live.
The top two vote-getters in the open At-large and districts 2 and 4 seats in the nonpartisan school board race move on to the general election in November. Elected board members serve four-year terms.
In the At-large race, Harris, who received 31.08% of votes cast, and challenger Rita Montoya, who won 31.04%, were virtually tied for the lead, based on voting results with nearly all precincts reporting.
District 2 challengers Natalie Zimmerman, with 46.1% of votes cast, and Brenda Diaz at about 22% were defeating Smondrowski, who received nearly 16.9%.
In the District 4 race, candidate Laura Stewart was leading with about 46.1% of votes cast. Evans, who received 26.93%, appeared to hold a slight lead against Bethany Mandel, who has 25.77%.
Updated at 9:45 p.m.: U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Takoma Park looks likely to win the Democratic primary for the 8th Congressional District, according to early election results reported by the state elections board.
With 57 of 199 election precincts statewide reporting as of 9:45 p.m., Raskin had won nearly 38,000 votes, or 95%, easily besting challenger Eric Felber, who had earned about 2,000, or 5% of votes cast.
Republican Cheryl Riley had received about 70% of the vote, with challenger Michael Yadeta earning 30%.
Former Gov. Larry Hogan looks to be the winner of the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, according to early returns.
With about 42% of votes reported as of 9:30 p.m., Hogan had garnered more than 90,000 votes cast statewide, or about 63%. His closest contender is Robin Ficker, with just more than 37,000 votes, or 28.6%. In Montgomery County, with 30 of 257 precincts reporting, Hogan has received about 5,400 votes, or 74%, with Ficker trailing at about 1,300 votes, about 18%.
Updated at 4:55 p.m.: Voter turnout continued to be low across the county for Tuesday’s primary election, Montgomery County Board of Elections President David Naimon told MoCo360 in an interview.
“There have been no wait times in Montgomery County that we are aware of. There are probably a lot of books being read today by election workers waiting for voters,” Naimon said Tuesday afternoon.
Unofficial Montgomery County Board of Elections data released Tuesday afternoon shows that by 11 a.m., at least 14,375 voters had cast a ballot, with 197 out of 237 precincts reporting. Out of those voters, 11,070 were Democrats, 2,636 were Republicans and 669 were non-affiliated with a political party.
Naimon said no major problems had been reported at any county polling places and he was not anticipating significantly increased voter turnout in the evening hours. He said he did expect more people to return mail-in ballots on Tuesday than had done so on Monday.
“We’re still probably going to end up with a lot of unreturned [mail-in] ballots,” Naimon said.
Requests for mail-in and web-delivered ballots closed last week. According to Maryland State Board of Elections data, 134,779 county residents requested a mail-in ballot. As of 6 p.m. Monday, 23,148 of those had been returned and accepted by the elections board.
Naimon said the elections board will canvass all Election Day ballots Tuesday night and release the results of early voting ballots as soon as polls close. However, by law, the board has to accept any mail-in ballot postmarked Tuesday as long as it is received within 10 days and therefore cannot certify the election results until those ballots are counted.
“We do not call elections,” Naimon said. “News outlets may call an election, the Associated Press may call an election, but we do not call an election.”
The board will begin canvassing remaining uncounted mail-in ballots Thursday and continue canvassing Friday and Saturday. Naimon said the board will assess how many additional canvasses may be needed based on the progress of the weekend.
So when will voters know the final results of the races?
“It depends on how close they are and depends on how many mail-in ballots there are,” Naimon said. “We’re going to be proceeding as quickly as we can.”
Updated at 3 p.m.: Nearly 160 people had cast ballots as of early Tuesday afternoon at Leisure World’s Club House I, one of three polling places at the Silver Spring senior living community.
Election judges counted 157 votes cast as of 12:55 p.m., according to Helen Jeffrey, a chief election judge at the polling place.
Jeffery said the day had gone “great” with a “nice” turnout, noting that seniors are typically more active voters.
“[Today] is proving to be the same,” she said. “For whatever reason, that demographic tends to vote and so Leisure World is no different.”
Jeffery said the option to mail ballots, which grew in popularity during the pandemic, has impacted turnout for in-person voting.
“Maryland used to require a reason for a mail-in ballot. Then when the pandemic happened anybody could opt to do a mail-in ballot. And they have kept that in place so that even though the pandemic is over with you can just vote by mail with no reason,” she explained.
After voting, Jim Long, a seven-year Leisure World resident, said he only checked his ballot in the presidential, Senate and U.S. House races since one of his biggest concerns is “Republican control of the Senate.”
“As Republicans in Montgomery County, especially here, there is no point in voting, but I do it anyway because we are a very overwhelming minority in the county in general and Leisure World in particular,” Long said.
He’s also concerned about immigration, the economy and crime. “I think that crime is very closely related to the immigration mess and that’s only going to get worse,” he said, saying he has noticed crime increasing in the county as well.
Mara Repetto, a Leisure World resident who immigrated to the U.S. from Brazil about 25 years ago, said after voting that she is worried about the nation’s future if Donald Trump were to be elected in November. The former Republican president will face Democratic President Joe Biden, who is running for a second term.
“We have one candidate that if he gets [elected], it will be a tragedy. There are extremists in the world, right-wing extremists, they are trying to take the world and I don’t want that,” she said. “He shouldn’t even be nominated; he should be in jail.”
Repetto also said education is an important voting issue, noting that she thinks the quality of education has declined in Montgomery County and the U.S. When it came to choosing candidates in the county school board race, Repetto said she looked to support those with experience.
Meanwhile, the Montgomery County government reminded voters on social media that casting a ballot was their “chance to shape our community.”
As of 3:55 p.m., about 317 ballots had been cast at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, according to Chief Election Judge Patrick Flynn. He said the day had been “very slow” with lulls of voters coming in small waves. He noted the rain impacted turnout.
Ellen Heard, a Bethesda resident who has lived in Montgomery County for more than 45 years, told MoCo360 her main concern for this election is “stopping Trump.”
Heard said she focused primarily on the presidential, Senate and U.S. House races today mostly because she did not know much about the candidates in the other races.
However, Heard, an educational consultant, believes the county school system must improve the ways it is addressing mental health in young people.
B-CC graduate Eli Holder came to the polls with his mom but did not end up voting because he realized he is not registered with a political party.
The only race Holder could vote for was the school board race. But he said he did not cast a ballot because he didn’t know the candidates.
“That’s the one thing I didn’t know about. I was planning on voting for everything else besides that,” he said.
Holder said he changed his party affiliation from Democrat to unaffiliated“ about three months ago. “I didn’t want to help create a polarized demographic of where I live,” he explained. “I don’t love the two-party system. I think that’s a common thing in younger people.”
Updated at 1:40 p.m.: While few voters were casting ballots at Lakelands Park Middle School in Gaithersburg on Tuesday, candidates flocked to the polling place to represent their campaigns.
“The energy that we’re seeing is amazing. Folks are coming out and showing their support, and I think we’re gonna win this thing. We built a broad coalition, and I think it’s showing right now,” said Del. Joe Vogel (D-Dist. 17), who is running for the Democratic nomination for Maryland Congressional District 6.
Fellow Democratic congressional candidate April McClain Delaney was joined at the polls by her husband, John Delaney, who previously held the congressional seat and ran in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
“It’s important to be at the polls to talk to voters, because there are some people who are just tuning in now to this race,” McClain Delaney said. “The people who are undecided, I’ve found, are often weighing one issue that is really pivotal for them.”
Democrat Destiny Drake West, who is also running for Maryland Congressional District 6, said she’d been excited to see some voters who came out specifically to support her, but voiced concern about low voter turnout overall in her travels across the district Tuesday morning.
“I wish people were a little bit more excited about the overall experience,” West said. “That’s something I want us to be working on for future elections.”
Montgomery County Board of Education Vice President Lynne Harris, who is running for re-election, was also at Lakelands Park Middle on Tuesday to talk to voters, assisted by student supporters.
Harris said she is ready for the school board race to be over because she’s frustrated by negative rhetoric expressed about the school system by some candidates.
Harris is one of three incumbents among 14 candidates running for the school board in the primary election, including Rebecca Smondrowski (Dist. 2) of Gaithersburg and Shebra Evans (Dist. 4)of Silver Spring. The top two vote-getters in the races for the at-large and District 2 and 4 seats will advance to November’s general election.
Harris, who is running for a second term, is facing five at-large candidates: Laytonsville resident Sharif Hidayat,Bethesda resident Melissa Kim, Germantown resident Jonathan Long, Silver Spring resident Rita Montoya; and Brookeville resident Fitzgerald Mofor.
In District 2, Smondrowski is running for a fourth term against Gaithersburg resident Brenda Diaz and Rockville residents Ricky Mui, Aby Thioye and Natalie Zimmerman. Evans is running for a third term against Silver Spring residents Bethany Mandel and Laura Stewart for the District 4 seat.
“There’s sadly been a lot of negativity. Yes, we have issues we need to fix … but there’s no problem we have that we can’t fix, and I see magic happening in schools everyday,” Harris said. “I am optimistic in that way.”
Editor’s note: This article, orginially published May 14 at 1:40 p.m. was updated May 14 at 3:57 p.m. to correct the name of Lakelands Park Middle School.
11:30 a.m.: Light turnout reported
Cloudy skies and an occasional light drizzle greeted voters heading to the polls across Montgomery County on Tuesday to cast ballots in the 2024 primary election.
Turnout appeared to be low during the first hours of voting, which began at 7 a.m., according to volunteers and campaign workers at the polls.
In downtown Silver Spring, a slow but steady trickle of voters headed into polling places at Saint Luke Lutheran Church on Colesville Road and Veterans Plaza at 1 Veterans Place in the hours after the polls opened.
By around 9:30, about 50 voters had headed into the polls at Veterans Plaza either to vote in person or to place mail-in ballots in a drop box, according to Cynthia Rubenstein, who was handing out campaign literature for U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks.
“It’s been very sedate,” she said.
At the polls at Rockville and Thomas S. Wootton high schools in Rockville, volunteers and local officials reported exceptionally low voter turnout over the first few hours of voting.
“So far, I don’t think I’ve seen more than 20 people,” said Jay Goldman, a volunteer with the county’s Democratic party at Rockville High. “This is the lightest I’ve ever seen it.”
Slightly higher numbers were seen at the polls at Wootton High, where 25 voters were recorded as of 9 a.m.
“I’ve been literally here at this polling site for candidates for over 40 years,” Rockville City Councilmember Adam Van Grack said. “So this is about the lowest turnout I’ve ever seen here at Wootton.”
Polls will be open until 8 p.m. Voters can find their polling place through the lookup tool on the Maryland State Board of Elections website.
Races on Tuesday’s ballot include those for U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, the Montgomery County Board of Education and judges for Montgomery County Circuit Court. Check out more on how to make a plan to vote here and find information on the candidates in the MoCo360 Voters Guide.
Independent voters can participate in the primaries for Montgomery County Board of Education and judges for Montgomery County Circuit Court. Registered Democrats and Republicans can also vote in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives primaries.
Among the most contested races on Tuesday’s ballot is for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). U.S. Rep. David Trone of Potomac and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are virtually in a dead heat as they seek the Democratic nomination, according to recent polls. The winner is likely to face Gov. Larry Hogan, the presumptive Republican nominee, in November.
“We knew, we knew the race would tighten at the end, but I think people are getting the message that we need change. I’m a disrupter. I’m a change agent. And that’s what people want,” Trone said Tuesday morning as he arrived to talk to voters at Lakelands Park Middle School in Gaithersburg.
At Veterans Plaza in Silver Spring, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Fairfax greeted voters as they headed to the polls.
Fairfax, one of four sitting judges running in Tuesday’s primary election, said she had been at the polls since they opened and planned to stay until closing—just as she had done for each day of early voting from May 2 to 9.
When she had the opportunity, the Silver Spring resident said she spoke to voters about the lengthy vetting process that judges must go through to be appointed to the bench. However, she was finding that most voters were more interested in heading into the polls than stopping to talk Tuesday morning.
“During early voting, it was really nice to be able to talk to them to and explain the process,” said Fairfax, who wore a bright yellow T-shirt emblazoned with the names of the four sitting judges who are running as a slate.
Fairfax is one of five candidates vying for four seats on the bench for the Montgomery County Circuit Court. Under state law, judges who are appointed by the governor must stand for election to a 15-year term in the next general election occurring at least one year after nomination to the court. Under the Maryland Constitution, any lawyer over the age of 30 living in the state may challenge the appointed judges, and no vetting is required.
In addition to Fairfax, the other sitting judges running for election are Marybeth Ayres, Louis Leibowitz and J. Bradford McCullough. Challenger Marylin Pierre, a Rockville lawyer, is running for the fourth time.
At Wootton High, Van Grack said he was not surprised by the low election day turnout due to the availability of mail-in ballots and early voting. Speaking just before 10 a.m., Van Grack said that more people had arrived at the Wootton polling site looking for the mail-in ballot drop-off location than to vote at the polls.
Goldman offered a similar opinion on the popularity of mail-in voting from his vantage point at Rockville High.
“I really think a lot of people voted by mail-in ballot,” Goldman said just after 10 a.m. “There have been a number of people who have walked up here and just put their ballot in [the mail-in drop-off box].”
As of about 10:10 a.m., 136 voters had made their way to Takoma Park Elementary School to cast their ballot in the primaries, according to chief election judges Lauren Kuhn and Chris Coffer at the polling site.
Kuhn said the morning had gone “smoothly.” Coffer added there was a consistent flow of people coming to the school to vote.
Outside of the elementary school, near colorful yard signs, about six canvassers handed out pamphlets with information about candidates and talking with voters heading to the polls.
Paola Allais Acree of Takoma Park has lived in the city for about 11 years and brought two of her three children to the polls with her. She said the U.S. presidential and Senate races were the two most important to her.
“That feels like a big deal right now. I’m a proud Democrat … and I don’t feel particularly aligned with the uncommitted movement, and so I wanted to be sure not to let my vote go uncounted,” Allais Acree said.
Julie Kurland, a 30-year Takoma Park resident, told MoCo360 that she came to the polls with issues including the environment, climate change, education, women’s rights and equality in mind.
“Hopefully, I was educated on the big three – presidential, Senate, and our congressional [race] – I don’t have kids so the Board of Education [race] is not as important to me, in terms of, I don’t know the players,” she said.
Kurland said she hopes “we can sustain our democratic nation” but fears the country will “wind up with the wrong presidential candidate” come November. “That probably overrides every other fear I have in terms of the environment and education and equality,” she said.
