Two county executive elections in major Maryland jurisdictions remained undecided as Wednesday dawned – and likely won’t be resolved until absentee and provisional ballots are counted in early July.
Hard-fought Democratic primaries for open county executive seats in Baltimore County and Montgomery County were too close to call Wednesday morning, with top contenders just a few hundred votes apart.
At the end of the night in Baltimore County, John A. “Johnny O” Olszewski Jr. was in the lead, followed closely by state Sen. James Brochin, with County Councilwoman Vicki L. Almond running third. Only 361 votes separated Olszewski from Brochin; 630 votes separated Brochin from Almond.
As is the case with dozens of other races in Maryland, the outcome will be decided by an unknown number of provisional ballots cast – an unexpected last-minute factor caused by a Motor Vehicle Administration computer glitch in which changes to some 80,000 voter registrations statewide were not recorded. Additionally, there are nearly 2,000 Democratic absentee ballots in play in the county.