There are hundreds of thousands of ballots left to be canvassed in Maryland, a process that will ultimately decide a closely watched U.S. House race in the state’s 6th District.
Maryland State Board of Elections officials said in a news release that more than 309,000 mail-in ballot have yet to be canvassed — a process that will resume Thursday.
Marylanders requested more than 881,000 mail-in ballots in total for the general election. Those ballots postmarked on Election Day will be canvassed if received before the local board’s certification of results.
The remaining ballots will clear up the picture in Maryland’s District 6 U.S. House race between Democrat April McClain Delaney and conservative Republican Neil Parrott.
As of 8 p.m. Wednesday, Delaney had a razor-thin lead of 315 votes, with The Associated Press projecting that 84% of the total votes in the race had been counted.
The sprawling 6th District includes the entirety of Western Maryland and stretches into parts of Montgomery County, such as Germantown and Gaithersburg. Democrats have represented the district for more than a decade.
But the district hasn’t always favored Democrats. It was represented by Republican Roscoe Bartlett for 20 years before McClain Delaney’s husband, John Delaney, won the seat in 2012 following a redistricting phase that helped Democrats.
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McClain Delaney, 60, previously worked in the Biden administration’s Department of Commerce and has focused much of her legal career on protecting children’s safety online.
She has used personal funds to bolster her campaign and has received endorsements from big-name Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin. She’s also outspent Parrott by a wide margin, according to AdImpact, which tracks campaign spending.
Parrott is a longtime resident of Hagerstown, a small city in Western Maryland surrounded by farmland. A traffic engineer by trade, Parrott said he can relate to people dealing with high grocery bills and unaffordable housing.
The open seat in District 6 was vacated by David Trone, who ran for Senate and lost to Angela Alsobrooks in the Democratic primary earlier this year. Alsobrooks went on to win the Senate seat, beating out former Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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