Despite narrowly trailing businessman David Blair after early voting and Election Day voting in the Democratic Primary for Montgomery County Executive, incumbent Marc Elrich says he thinks things may turn around after mail-in ballots are counted.
“I’m optimistic about the mail-in ballot count,” he said during a media briefing Wednesday. Elrich said many votes came in before the “slew of negative advertising really bombarded the airwaves,” which he believes was effective “at the end.”
In the 2018 Democratic Primary, Elrich defeated Blair by just 77 votes.
On Wednesday, Nancy Floreen, 2018 County Executive candidate and former County Councilmember, talked to MyMCM about what kind of effect advertising and mail-in ballots may have on the election.
In a response, Blair’s campaign said they, too, are optimistic about mail-in ballot results and that Blair is well-positioned to win the Democratic Primary. According to unofficial results by the Maryland Board of Elections, Blair leads Elrich by 1,191 votes.
“We’re optimistic about mail ballot results given the strong belief we’ve heard and seen from voters that Montgomery County should be doing better,” said Aaron Kraut, spokesperson for the David Blair Campaign, in an email to MyMCM on Thursday. “We actively encouraged supporters to request mail ballots and are well-positioned to win the primary given the results of in-person voting released earlier this week.”
Blair received 28,961 combined early and Election Day votes and Elrich received 27,770, per unofficial results by the state Board of Elections.
But the numbers are not final. Mail-in ballot counting began Thursday and as of that morning, the Montgomery County Board of Elections received 33,650 mail-in ballots out of a total request for 115,751 ballots.
Councilmember Hans Riemer, in third place before the counting of mail-in votes, has conceded.
