Maryland Matters election contest: We have a winner!

The results from last week’s primaries won’t be officially certified until Friday.

But here at Maryland Matters, even before the vote count is final, we’re able to declare a winner in our election contest. And we didn’t have to go to any of our tie-breaking questions to find our winner.

Congratulations to Thomas Slater, a Frederick attorney and seasoned Democratic activist, who wins this spring’s contest. His prize: Lunch with the Maryland Matters staffer of his choice.

Our 10 questions could have produced a maximum of 19 correct answers, and Slater got 15 of them right. The runners-up got 13 right answers. We’ll list all the correct answers below.

Here’s how Slater pulled it off: He correctly answered the winners in the U.S. Senate primaries. He correctly identified the top two finishers in the 6th Congressional District Democratic primary, and the top three finishers in the 6th District Republican primary. He correctly called the winners in the Baltimore mayoral Democratic primary and the Democratic primary for city council president.

Slater also identified the top five finishers, in order, in the 22-candidate Democratic primary in the 3rd Congressional District. And he correctly guessed that David Bossie would receive more votes than any other candidate in the 8th District seeking to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

There is currently a two-way tie for second place, between David Miller, Maryland’s second gentleman, and Sandra Brantley, an assistant state attorney general and chief counsel to the General Assembly. But the final results in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate — specifically who finishes third — could break our second-place tie.

Former federal contractor Joseph Perez at this writing is in third place, with 4,096 votes. But Michael Cobb Sr., a roofer, was close behind with 4,069 votes.

The final count of mail-in and provisional ballots could change the outcome of their finish. If Perez stays in third place, then Brantley will finish with 14 correct answers, pushing Miller down to third with his 13 correct answers.

A Perez third place finish would also propel Joseph Ferrari, a Bethesda resident who is earning his college degree this month from Kenyon College, into a third-place tie with the second gentleman. He currently has 12 right answers, but a Perez third-place finish would give him 13.

One other contestant, Joel Beller of the Baltimore County Department of Housing and Community Development also got 12 answers right, but he won’t get any more than that, even with the uncertain outcome in the Senate primary. Who says that every vote doesn’t count?

Here, in bold, were the correct answers from our quiz:

— The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate will be Angela Alsobrooks.

— The Republican nominee for U.S. Senate will be Larry Hogan.

— Who will finish third in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate? Currently unknown (see above)

— Predict the top three finishers in the Democratic primary in the 6th Congressional District, in order: April McClain Delaney, Joe Vogel, Ashwani Jain

— Predict the top three finishers in the Republican primary in the 6th Congressional District, in order: Neil Parrott, Dan Cox, Mariela Roca

— The Democratic nominee for mayor of Baltimore will be Brandon Scott.

— The Democratic nominee for city council president of Baltimore will be Zeke Cohen.

— Predict the top five finishers in the Democratic primary in the 3rd Congressional District, in order: Sarah Elfreth, Harry Dunn, Clarence Lam, Terri Hill, Mark Chang

— Who will win the Republican primary for Cecil County executive and what will their total percentage of the vote be? Adam Streight, 52.78%

— Will David Bossie be the top vote-getter in the 8th District Republican primary to be a GOP convention delegate for Donald Trump? Yes

We also asked three tie-breaker questions — which turned out not to be necessary for the outcome of our contest. But here are those answers, in bold:

— Johnny O’s margin of victory over Del. Harry Bhandari in the 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary will be (choose one) OVER 25% or UNDER 25%? Over (by a lot)

— Who will finish second to U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer in the Democratic primary in the 5th Congressional District? Quincy Bareebe

— Who will win more votes in the Democratic primary for mayor of Baltimore, Joseph E. Scott or Keith B. Scott? Currently unknown at this point. As of this writing, Joseph Scott has 98 votes and Keith Scott has 95 votes

Some fun facts: Of our 69 contestants, only five correctly predicted that Streight would oust Cecil County Executive Danielle Hornberger in the GOP primary. One predicted his exact percentage of the vote.

Almost everyone predicted that Brandon Scott would win the Baltimore mayoral primary, and all but a handful predicted Cohen would win the primary for city council president. The contestants were almost evenly split when it came to calling the Democratic Senate primary between Alsobrooks and U.S. Rep. David Trone.

Congratulations to Mr. Slater on your victory! And thanks to everyone who entered! We’ll be back with another contest just before the general election.

The post Maryland Matters election contest: We have a winner! appeared first on Maryland Matters.