Thousands of mail-in ballots remain to be counted in Baltimore County
BALTIMORE - Although initial returns have started to shape Baltimore County's most closely watched primary races, the outcome of several contests remains uncertain as election officials work through tens of thousands of mail-in ballots.
Nearly 73,000 mail-in ballots were sent to Baltimore County voters, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. State data showed that as of 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the county had received 40,278 ballots back. Of those ballots, 33,747 were from Democrats, while 6,531 were from Republicans.
About 5,500 mail-in ballots were canvassed before Tuesday's primary election, according to Ruie Lavoie, Baltimore County's elections director.
By Thursday afternoon, 50 canvassers, seated in bipartisan two-person teams, filled the Baltimore County Board of Elections headquarters in Owings Mills to continue reviewing, sorting, and counting ballots, ultimately feeding them through two scanners. Lavoie said they aimed to count 10,000 ballots Thursday, with the rest to be counted Friday and Saturday. Provisional ballots, as well as original ballots that were not replacement ballots, will be counted next week.
Maryland's mail-in ballot error has made Baltimore County's ballot counting process "slower than normal," Lavoie said, though the county is still on schedule. State election officials have acknowledged that some voters were mistakenly sent ballots for the wrong political party, prompting them to send replacement ballots to affected voters.
"The process takes a little bit longer because we're quarantining ballots that are the original ballots, and then we're making sure that a voter only votes one time," she said. "Any voters that voted during early voting, we're marking their records so that they're not able to also vote a mail-in ballot, so it is taking a little bit more back-end and front-end work, but we're getting through it."
Several candidates, campaign staffers, and volunteers observed the canvassing process, which is open to the public, including Democratic Baltimore County executive candidate Julian Jones, who was leading the five-way primary with more than 40% of the vote as of Tuesday night.
"I feel absolutely wonderful - we put the work in, we left it all on the field, and we've been running for office for at least a couple of years now, so it all boils down to this," he told The Baltimore Sun. "I wanted to be here because I believe this is what democracy looks like."
Thursday's canvassing session also included members of the county's Board of Canvassers - the Board of Elections - who manually reviewed mail-in ballots referred to them with unclear voter intentions or stray marks. One ballot the board reviewed had marks crossing out every race, while another ballot reviewed showed a voter scratched out a candidate's name with a vote for a different candidate below.
Results released Tuesday night included all ballots cast during the eight-day early voting period and on primary election day, as well as the mail-in ballots counted ahead of time. But tallying up the totals from additional mail-in ballots could change who's leading in certain races.
The county executive race, for instance, has not yet been called. Jones was careful not to declare victory Tuesday, acknowledging the ballots that remained to be counted - though he also said the results were getting to a "mathematical impossibility." His closest challenger, Izzy Patoka, who trailed Jones by just shy of 8,000 votes after early returns, has not yet conceded.
So far, the Democratic primary for the District 2 council seat has emerged as the closest contest after early returns. Initial results in the four-way race show Ruben Amaya leading Lawrence Williams by six votes.
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This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 6:42 PM.