By David Noss
CALIFORNIA, Md. (November 5, 2010)—Incumbent Jack Russell pulled ahead of challenger Tommy McKay by 128 votes after the first round of absentee ballots were counted Thursday. The tally now stands at 15,326 for Russell and 15,198 for McKay. McKay is trying to regain his seat as president of the St. Mary's County Board of Commissioners. McKay ceded the seat
in 2006 so he could run for state senate.
There were 1,633 absentee ballots mailed out in St. Mary's County. 1,141
ballots were counted Thursday, leaving potentially 492 ballots to be counted next Friday.
Forty-seven of the ballots counted (4%) had no vote recorded for the
commissioner president office.
Provisional ballots are scheduled to be counted Nov. 10 starting at 10:00 a.m.
The total number of ballots will not be known until the count has been
completed. Unofficial estimates place the number around 100.
Given the number of potentially outstanding ballots yet to be counted, it is still possible for McKay to win.
Updated 5-NOV-2010 @2:00 p.m. to include updated information from Board of
Elections.