Election officials urge patience as holiday, mail-in ballots will affect count
Once Maryland voters exercise their right to vote Tuesday, they should expect to exercise something else: patience.
Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis said that while many results will be available on election night, counting mail-in and provisional ballots takes time. And officials face new wrinkles this year, with the challenge of accounting for hundreds of thousands of replacement mail-in ballots and a federal holiday falling during the official canvass period.
The key, he said, is that every ballot, including those postmarked by Tuesday, will be counted.
“On election night, you’re going to get all election night results, you’re going to get early voting results, you’re going to get what we canvassed to date of the mail-in ballots,” DeMarinis said Monday. “Patience is a good word to know because we do count all those ballots. In tighter races, the margin might be more determinative after Election Day than on election night.”
https://marylandmatters.org/2026/06/23/election-officials-urge-patience-as-holiday-mail-in-ballots-will-affect-count/