WASHINGTON — We may not know clear winners for some races until after Maryland's primary night.
Our Verify researchers spoke with Nikki Charlson, the deputy administrator at the Maryland State Board of Elections to explain why.
“I think viewers are used to knowing when they go to bed who won, but election officials know there's lots more work to be done and lots more ballots to be counted," Charlson said. "And this election year is certainly going to be the same.”
About 500,000 mail-in ballots have been requested by voters, she said. So far the election board has received about 150,000 back. They are legally not allowed to count those ballots yet.
“They can't be opened until Wednesday, and our regulations say they can't start counting them until Thursday," Charlson said. "So the law right now does not allow us to start counting ballots before Election Day.”
So if it’s a close race, those mail-in ballots and provisional ballots could make a difference.
Provisional ballots will be counted by local boards on Wednesday, July 27.
"Delays in results don't mean anything is going on, it means that the local election officials are doing their jobs, and they're counting ballots," Charlson said. "And that is a long process."
According to Maryland Code, local election boards must send a certified copy of election results to the Governor, state board and the clerk of the circuit court of that county, by the second Friday after a primary election (July 29), "or, if the canvass is completed after that date, within 48 hours after the completion of the canvass. "
Charlson says she expects it to take a bit longer than July 29 to get the final count in some of the larger counties like Prince George’s, Montgomery and Baltimore.
"Usually they don't finish by the second Friday—they usually go into the following week," she said. "And so we expect them to do that normally."