Will Maryland get final Primary results on election night? Not likely

As early voting closes on July 14, the primary election cycle continues on with officials readying for the July 19 Primary Election Day and the more-than-a-week-long process to certify the results that will follow.

Barry Jackson, deputy election director at the Washington County Board of Elections, says all the jurisdictions across the state will “have some sort of results election night,” but adds counting mail-in ballots may cause some counties to be slower than others in certifying their results.

“Some of the larger counties that have 10s of thousands, if not 100s of thousands of mail-in ballots, that’s going to take them longer to count, so it may take them longer to certify,” he said. Montgomery County is the sole jurisdiction in the state to receive over 100,000 requests for mail-in ballots this year.

With less than a week before Election Day, the Western Maryland county still has not received over half of its mail-in ballots from the 8,000 requests it received this year. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day or dropped off in one of the county’s six drop boxes by 8 p.m. July 19. In total, there are 288 drop box locations across the state.

Maryland is the only state that does not permit the processing of mail-in ballots until after the polls close on election day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. It is also one of only nine states that do not require signature verification on mail-in ballots.

Several important statewide and federal offices are on the ballot this year— including for governor, the state attorney general, all the seats in the State House, comptroller, each of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and one U.S. senator’s seat — ahead of a general election in which Marylanders will decide who replaces Republican Gov. Larry Hogan after eight years.

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Washington County plans to certify the election on July 29, Jackson said. “That’s when the (Washington County) results will be official.”

Jackson says an average of about 300 people in Washington County have been voting each of the days during the early voting period, which began on July 7. The county has nearly 75,000 registered eligible voters in the primary. Statewide less than 3 percent of eligible voters voted early, in person, as of July 12.

Unlike the 2020 election, in which voters could vote at a voting centers, Jackson says those voting on Election Day must vote at the polling place they are assigned and urged voters to check their location online beforehand.

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Wicomico County Election Director Dionne Church and Julia Cox, the acting election director in Somerset County, say the results from the polls will come in on "election night,” but the counties each have three canvasses planned before results are certified.

The Eastern Shore counties' first canvas will be July 21, the second on July 27, and the final canvas will be on July 29. This year, Somerset County had less than 1,000 requests for mail-in ballots, Cox said. Statewide, about 27 percent of the roughly 423,000 mail-in ballots that were sent had been returned, as of July 12. In Somerset County, about 47 percent of the mail-in ballots that had been sent were returned by July 12.

Friday, July 15, is the deadline to request a mail-in ballot be sent via email from the State Board of Elections. A request to receive the ballot by email can be submitted online.

Nikki Charlson, deputy administrator for the State Board of Elections, wants patience from voters as the process proceeds.

“Because there are more mail-in ballots this time than we’re used to, it could take some counties longer than normal,” she said. “Let the local election officials count all the ballots. That will take time, it always takes time.”

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Will Maryland get Primary results on election night? Not likely