Political Notes: Certified election results in Montgomery show 35-vote win for Elrich, uncertainty remains in Frederick council race

Montgomery County elections officials review paperwork during a provisional ballot canvass on Saturday. Photo from the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

The Montgomery County Board of Elections on Saturday certified the results of the July 19 primary election, with County Executive Marc Elrich leading the democratic primary for that office by 35 votes over challenger David Blair.

Blair, who narrowly lost the party nomination to Elrich four years ago by 77 votes, has indicated he will seek a recount in the close contest.

His campaign has 72 hours from the election’s certification to make a formal request.

Saturday’s certification came after county election officials announced around 11 pm Thursday that they had found 102 provisional ballots from nine precincts that hadn’t previously been counted.

In a final ballot canvass Saturday morning, 101 of those provisional ballots were accepted and the results reported to the State Board of Elections.

Blair received 31 additional votes and Elrich received an additional 24.

Elrich led in the certified results 39.20% to 39.17% for Blair.

The eventual winner of the primary will face former Montgomery County Republican Central Committee Chair Reardon Sullivan in the general election.

The Maryland State Board of Elections is set to meet Monday to certify statewide election results, even as other races remain uncertain.

In Frederick County on Friday, a Circuit Court judge ruled that the challenger in a District 3 County Council race was disqualified from seeking the office, days after additional results tallied in that race showed a one-vote win.

Jazmin Di Cola, a community activist, eked out the narrowest win possible — 2,298 votes to 2,297 — in a primary challenge to Frederick County Council President MC Keegan-Ayer in results reported Wednesday.

Keegan-Ayer had filed the challenge to Di Cola’s residency a week earlier.

The Frederick News-Post reported that Judge Julia Martz-Fisher concluded that Di Cola was ineligible to run for the office under the county charter’s residency requirement after an eight-hour hearing on Friday.

Di Cola will have five days to file an appeal in the case.

In the meantime, the Frederick County Board of Elections is set to meet Tuesday at 9 am to begin a recount requested by Keegan-Ayer in the District 3 race.

If Di Cola prevails in the recount and the disqualification stands, the county’s democratic central committee will be able to choose a replacement to appear on the November general election ballot.

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