Polls open Tuesday for Maryland’s primary election following middling early vote turnout

BALTIMORE — Tuesday is primary day, the final day for Marylanders to vote for their party nominees for statewide and local seats ahead of November’s general election.

Maryland voters can head to their assigned polling places to cast their ballots from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Over 2,100 polling places will be open across the state — 181 of which are in Baltimore City.

Voters can find their assigned polling places on the Maryland State Board of Elections website. Polls will remain open until everyone in line by 8 p.m. has had the opportunity to vote.

Turnout so far this election season has been middling, on par with what observers say they expect in a presidential year where the presidential nominees are all but decided on.

Just 151,503 Marylanders cast ballots at the state’s 97 early voting centers during the eight-day early voting period, which began May 2 and ran through May 9. That’s just over 4% of the state’s 3.7 million eligible active voters.

Voting by mail, which has remained a frequently used option since the pandemic, has again proved to be popular. As of Sunday, 594,724 mail-in ballots had been sent to voters across the state. An additional 44,000 had been requested.

Voters have been slow, however, to return their mail-in ballots. Just under 294,000 had been returned as of Sunday evening — about 8% of the state’s eligible active voters.

Voters can still return their mail-in ballots through primary day by having them postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Mailed ballots must be postmarked, not just placed in the mail. They will also be counted if they are returned to local election boards or placed in ballot drop boxes by 8 p.m. A list of ballot drop box locations is available on the Maryland State Board of Elections website.

Some election returns — but not a totality — will become available on the State Board of Elections website starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

State election officials have cautioned that the sluggish return of mail-in ballots could mean slower election returns. About 139,000 mail-in ballots have been counted so far, but many local boards of elections did not canvass over the weekend or Monday to afford for time to prepare polling places for Tuesday. Ballot canvassing will resume Thursday, according to the state’s election calendar.

Approximately 19,000 ballots were canvassed statewide from Thursday to Sunday.

Provisional ballots will begin to be counted May 22.

Marylanders may cast provisional ballots if they requested a mail-in ballot but claim to have never received one, or if they received a mail-in ballot but choose instead to vote in person.

At the top of the ticket, voters will select their official presidential nominees. Though there is a field of candidates to choose from, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the presumptive nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.

Statewide, voters will also make their selections to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, who announced last year that he would not seek reelection. At the top of the pool of 10 Democratic candidates are U.S. Rep. David Trone and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

A poll from The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 and the University of Baltimore of likely Democratic voters conducted April 7-10 showed Alsobrooks trailing Trone by 19 percentage points. Whoever prevails will likely face former Gov. Larry Hogan, who is the presumptive Republican nominee among the party’s seven candidates.

Races among hopeful nominees for the U.S. House of Representatives are also being waged among the state’s eight congressional districts.

Most contested will be the races to replace U.S. Reps. John Sarbanes and Dutch Ruppersberger, both of whom announced that they would not seek reelection, and Trone, who is ceding his incumbency in the 6th Congressional District to run for Senate.

Residents of Baltimore City will also choose their nominee for mayor, City Council president, and their district representative on the City Council.

There are 11 Democratic candidates in the mayoral race, which is poised to be a tight contest between incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott and former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

The Sun poll showed Scott, who polled at 38%, holding a close lead over Dixon, who polled at 35%.

The mayoral race is complicated by attorney Thiru Vignarajah, who announced he was no longer running in an effort to funnel votes to Dixon, whom he endorsed earlier this month. Votes for Vignarajah that were submitted by mail will be counted, and he will appear on in-person ballots Tuesday.

City voters selecting their Democratic nominee for City Council president will have their pick among incumbent Nick Mosby, City Councilman Zeke Cohen, and former Councilwoman Shannon Sneed, with Cohen polling ahead of his opponents by a large margin.

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