Baltimore mayoral candidate Sheila Dixon not calling it quits until mail-in ballots are counted

The race for Baltimore mayor may have been called for incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott, but challenger Sheila Dixon said Wednesday she’s not giving up.

In a statement by her campaign team, the former mayor said she will wait for more mail-in ballots to be counted before making any statements on the race.

“In respect to all who voted, I’ll be waiting for the final outcome of the mail-in ballots,” she said. “I appreciate your patience as we monitor the tally of the outstanding votes still being counted.”

With votes from Election Day, early voting and some mail-in voting counted, Scott opened a substantial gap between him and Dixon on Tuesday night. He had almost 51% of the vote to Dixon’s 41% — a 6,300 vote difference. That was enough for the Associated Press to call the race in Scott’s favor. He claimed victory at his election night watch party Tuesday.

“I think it’s safe to say we’re destined for a second term,” Scott said to loud cheers from supporters.

Both Scott and Dixon are Democrats. The Democratic primary typically decides races in deeply blue Baltimore.

As of Wednesday, 25,732 mail-in ballots had been cast by Democratic voters in Baltimore, according to Maryland State Board of Elections data. Of those, 11,781 had been counted and included in the returns released on election night. That leaves 13,951 ballots left to be counted with more potentially still arriving. More than 48,800 mail-in ballots were sent out to city Democratic voters ahead of the election. The state has seen a return rate of about 80% since mail-in voting became more prevalent.

The counting process, known as canvassing, is set to resume Thursday at the city’s elections warehouse. The process typically begins slowly and increases in speed. In 2020, Baltimore canvassed about 12,000 ballots on its first day of counting. Some ballots, like those cast by voters who requested them via email, require manual duplication onto standardized forms before they can be counted.

The 2024 mayoral race was a rematch for Scott and Dixon, who faced each other in 2020 amid a crowded field of Democrats. That year, Scott emerged victorious for the first time by a margin of 3,100 votes. Dixon waited several days to concede in that race as well, making an announcement the Saturday following the election.

While the total scope of mail-in ballots cast in the race is still unknown, on Tuesday Baltimore’s Election Director Armstead Jones called turnout on Election Day a “terrible mess.” About 42,000 city voters cast ballots in person Tuesday. In 2016, before mail-in voting became popular, 104,635 city voters participated in Election Day voting. In 2012, when former President Barack Obama ran as an incumbent but before city races were aligned with presidential ones, just 37,932 people voted in person in Baltimore on primary day.