Members of the Montgomery County Board of Elections unanimously voted Wednesday to certify results of the recent election, 22 days after the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“Today is the day everything culminates.” declared Election Board Director Boris Brajkovic.
76.64% of registered voters in Montgomery County cast ballots, for a total of 523,824 votes. Most of the votes were cast on election day. Voters cast 175,050 votes Nov. 5. Another 165,927 registered voters used the mail in system to record their votes.
During early voting, 156,053 votes were cast. 26,341 provisional ballots were accepted.
More than 2,000 ballots were rejected.
“Unfortunately, we were required to reject hundreds of mail-in or provisional ballots because the voter didn’t include or didn’t sign the oath, left out other crucial information on the provisional ballot application, or the mail-in ballot was postmarked after Election Day,” said Board Secretary Amie Hoeber.
“These simple errors are easily correctable. For example, more than 600 voters returned untimely mail-in ballots. If mail-in ballot voters mail their ballots earlier or use one of the 58 drop boxes across the county, many of these errors can be avoided or corrected in time for the votes to be counted,” she said.
Brajkovic thanked all involved who “lived through the last nine weeks of intense pressure and long hours,” adding, “We didn’t have any Saturday or Sunday off.”
Noted Board Member Marjie Delao, “It’s incredible to see democracy in action.”
Following Wednesday’s certification, the winning candidates for judge and school board can be sworn in.
🚨 ATTENTION MONTGOMERY!
📣 GENERAL ELECTION CERTIFICATION: TODAY 3PM
📲 https://t.co/rbk2f0Hrc0 #YourVoiceYourVote2024 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Lz7kJCuprl— MontgomeryMDVotes (@777Vote) November 27, 2024
