‘Robust’ turnout but smooth operations at polling places on Election Day

Voters, including Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks and her daughter, Alex, cast their ballots Tuesday at Wise High School in Prince George’s County. Photo by William J. Ford.

Maryland election officials reported smooth operations at polling places around the state Tuesday, despite “robust” turnout and long lines at a handful of polls caused by “convenience voters” who turned up at the wrong precinct.

State Election Administrator Jared DeMarinis said good weather and a lack of snags made him optimistic that the state might see record turnout by the time voting was over.

DeMarinis said he believes the state will surpass 3 million total voters — a record set in the 2020 election — and he was optimistic that the turnout will surpass 80% of the state’s 4.2 million registered voters. The only other time that happened in Maryland was in 1992, when turnout hit 81%.

“So, 82 (percent) is the magic number to go for,” DeMarinis said. “I want to go for 100 (percent). That’s always my goal — 100.”

Even though Maryland was not a battleground state, voters had plenty to get them out to the polls for this election.

Those ranged from the divisive presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, to a high-stakes race for Senate, congressional races, a raft of local ballot issues and a statewide proposal to add reproduction rights to the state constitution. Question 1, the abortion question, is one of the issues that brought Jenny Matthews, 52, and her daughter, first-time voter Dakota, 19, to the polling place at Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School to vote.

“I’m definitely for abortion … we need it for women’s health care,” Jenny said. Her daughter agreed.

“I feel like no one should be telling women what to do with their bodies,” Dakota said.

They both both voted for Harris, saying they believe some people were less willing to vote for her because she is not only a woman, but a woman of color.

“I’ve had conversations where people say, ‘Yeah, Trump’s not it, but the other leaders of the world will respect him rather than respect a female president.’ What does that have to do with anything?” Jenny asked. “What makes you guys think that she can’t do a good job because she’s a woman?”

Dakota said she “was a bit nervous,” voting for the first time, “with the whole presidential campaign, either Trump or Kamala, and with the city council and all that.” She said the local questions drove her to do “a lot of research on it because I didn’t know too much about it.”

“Of course, I learned U.S. history in high school, but when it comes to politics of the city, I didn’t know a lot. So I was nervous because, like, I didn’t want to mess up the whole city. Because every vote matters,” she said. “People say it doesn’t, but every vote definitely matters.”

Noah Watts, 29, said he did not feel comfortable voting on some of the local issues on the ballot, since he only moved to Baltimore two year ago.

“In terms of elected officials, I weighed in,” said Watts, adding that he voted for Harris and Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks. “I left a fair portion of mine blank. I voted for the issues I knew about, but for anything that was ambiguous, I decided to stay hands off because I didn’t want to accidentally end up voting for the wrong person.”

Watts said the voting process itself was simple. The hardest part was getting there: He wound up biking 15 minutes across the city and back to get to his assigned precinct.

“I was directed, probably by my own ignorance, to the wrong place,” Watts said, who said he looked up where to go online and headed to Enoch Pratt Library, where the poll worker redirected him to the Montessori School.

“Besides being extra sweaty, it was the easiest thing I’ve done in the last few days,” Watts said of voting.

Despite a wait of up to 30 minutes, voters at a polling place inside the Crofton branch of the Anne Arundel County Public Library said  the voting process “wasn’t too bad.”

“It was pretty smooth. They have a couple people and a couple of stations in there and they were trying to get it moving quickly,” said Jaden Olley, 23.

Olley, voting in just his second presidential election, is a registered Democrat who described himself as an independent voter. He said he did originally plan to vote this year because, “Biden was going to run again and I think, to his credit, Trump was right —Biden was deteriorating in front of us and I wasn’t going to vote for that.”

He said he was not sold on Harris as an alternative, but wound up voting for her as well as Alsobrooks — 0ut of concern over potential Republican control of the Senate — and in support of Question 1..

“I’m not the biggest Harris supporter by any means,” said Olley, who is Black. “It was just one of those things where she kind of reminded me of my mom.”

Yvonne Jewell, 82, is a registered Republican who also describes herself as an independent voter, but who was voting straight party line, like Olley. She planned to vote against Question 1 and for GOP Senate nominee Larry Hogan and Trump. The economy, crime and border security were top of mind for the Crofton resident.

“Kamala Harris, the only thing she ever talked about as her policy is abortion and abortion doesn’t put food on the table for families, for their kids. It doesn’t put a roof over your head. I like gas (powered) cars and I just don’t believe what she says she stands for.”

Jewell said Harris was too closely associated with the policies of President Joseph Biden (D). That was enough for her to vote for Trump, as she did in 2020 and 2016.

“2016 was a good year,” she said. “I’m single. I live on Social Security. And to be honest, I don’t appreciate the lies and I’ve never heard Trump say he’s going to do away with Medicare.”

She said she voted for Hogan “because when he was governor he left Maryland with a (surplus). And then we put in — I hate to say it — the Democrat, and now we’re in a hole.”

Hogan, who served two terms as governor, from 2o15 to 2023, cast his ballot early Tuesday morning at Davidsonville Elementary. An outspoken critic of Trump, Hogan has written in other names for president in the past two elections, but when it came to choosing between Trumps and Harris on Tuesday, Hogan opted to leave his ballot blank, aides said.

Alsobrooks, meanwhile, voted Tuesday morning alongside her Alex Alsobrooks-Laney, 19, a first-time voter, at a polling precinct at Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School in Upper Marlboro. The two were followed by television cameras and photographers as they walked into the cafeteria to vote.

Alsobrooks, the current Prince George’s County executive, walked out to cheers and hugs from friends and supporters before speaking briefly with reporters. Alsobrooks-Laney, standing beside her mother, said the topic of reproductive rights is discussed at Spelman College, a historically Black women’s institution in Atlanta she attends.

“We actually have Planned Parenthood society at our school … so that’s something that we all have to deal with,” she said to reporters. “Just a pleasure and a privilege that I can vote for my mother and someone who cares about reproductive rights, especially as well as Kamala Harris.”

Before Alsobrooks and her daughter left, several voters took selfies with the county executive. They included Ralph Moten II, a retired maintenance workers who praised Alsobrooks and the vice president.

“They are what we would like our politicians to be,” Moten said. “The good lord always brings a savior to the top, and that’s what we get with the Democratic ticket this year.”

Earlier in the morning, about a dozen Prince George’s County voters lined up to vote at the Lake Arbor Community Center gymnasium.

Jartu Contea walked outside and conducted a live video to encourage people who haven’t cast their ballots to do it Tuesday.

“I’m excited because I voted. It’s a privilege. I also voted because I don’t want Trump because of all the stuff that he has done. I don’t think it’s even fair for him to be standing as a president,” said Contea, a certified medication technician and certified nursing assistant.

Contea’s vote for Alsobrooks was personal.

“When my auntie and uncle died in Saudia Arabia, Angela Alsobrooks was there. She talked to me. I appreciated that,” Contea said.

Election Day voters are still the majority in Maryland, but they are becoming fewer and fewer. DeMarinis said that nearly 40% of the 4.2 million registered voters in the state had already voted by mail or during the eight days of in-person early voting that ended last week. Just under 1 million people went to early voting centers and nearly 880,000 mail-in ballots were sent out for the general election, with more than 614,000 of those returned before Election Day.

Voters had until 8 p.m. Tuesday to deposit their mail-in ballots in a drop box by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked no later than Nov. 5 and received by 10 a.m. Nov. 15 to be counted.

The first results released when the polls close Tuesday will be tallies from early voting and mail-in ballots canvassed so far.

DeMarinis — while cautioning that “I don’t want to jinx myself on that front” — said at several points during the day that voting was going smoothly. That was echoed, for the most part, by organizations keeping an eye on the polls statewide, who reported few problems.

Nikki Tyree, executive director of the Maryland League of Women Voters, said “exceptionally long lines” have been common. Additionally some voters in College Park and Burtonsville have been subject to longer waits “because they are voting provisional (ballots) because they don’t know where their polling place is.”

Tyree said she has some concern about how those issues will impact “the afterwork surge of voters” and the counting of votes.

DeMarinis, in a late afternoon call with reporters, acknowledged the lines at College Park and Burtonsville, which he attributed to “the convenience voter…is what we kind of call them.”