By Len Lazarick, MarylandReporter.com
With a surge of 29,000 voters on Thursday, a record 141,590 Marylanders voted early for Tuesday’s primary, with slightly more than 5% of eligible Democrats (105,339) going to the polls. (TOTAL CORRECTED 6/20, 3 p.m.)
As they have in the past two elections with early voting, Republicans continue to show up in smaller numbers, with only 3.5% (34,112) casting ballots. However, the highest percentage turnouts in the state were among GOP voters in two Eastern Shore counties, where 12.5% of eligible Republicans (1,415) voted in Talbot County, and 9.2% (1,438) in Queen Anne’s County.
Unaffiliated and minor party voters were only allowed to vote in nonpartisan elections for school board in some counties, and 2,139 showed up.
Maryland’s largest counties, Montgomery and Prince George’s, where the top three Democrats running for governor live, had the most voters, but slightly lagged in the overall percentage.
In Prince George’s County, home of Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, 21,140 Democrats went to the polls (4.78%), and in Montgomery County, home of Attorney General Doug Gansler and Del. Heather Mizeur, 16,443 of Democrats voted (4.64%).
The running mates for Gansler and Mizeur, Del. Jolene Ivey and the Rev. Delman Coates, also live in Prince George’s.
Among the large counties, Baltimore and Howard had the highest percentages of Democrats voting. In Baltimore County, 18,422 Democrats (6.2%) went to the polls. In Howard County, home of Brown’s running mate, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, and where half of its 12 legislative seats have no incumbents, 6,974 Democrats (7.4%) voted.