Mayoral candidate Jared Littmann leads Rhonda Pindell Charles in the in-person election day vote count in Tuesday’s Annapolis city Democratic primary.
Littmann, a hardware store owner and former alderman, received 1,371 in-person election day votes. Pindell Charles, the Ward 3 alderman, received 771 in-person votes. The primary winner won’t be determined until Sept. 23, when mail-in, drop-box and provisional ballots are counted.
Around 2,140 people voted across the city in person on Tuesday. About 1,610 ballots sent by mail or through a drop box were received by the county as of Tuesday at 5 p.m.; that figure does not include ballots picked up from drop boxes on election night or ballots still being sent through the mail. The county had issued more than 2,000 mail-in ballots to Annapolis voters.
“Rhonda ran a very spirited, respectful campaign. I consider her a friend, and I appreciate the campaigns that we each ran that were on our own merits and not to tear each other apart. I am very thankful for my voters and the supporters I have in the community,” Littmann said late Tuesday. “I still have a lot of work to do to try to gain the support of anybody who voted for Rhonda or who didn’t vote at all, because there is still a sizable community who didn’t feel the need to vote today, and I still want to reach them, not only for the general election, but to represent them as best as I can.”
On Wednesday morning, a post to Pindell Charles’ campaign account thanked voters and the campaign team, adding, “We look forward to learning the official Primary Election results in late September.”
The Democratic mayoral primary winner will go up against Republican Bob O’Shea, who did not have a primary competitor, in the November general election.
The primary, and the general election, will shape the next four years of Annapolis politics as term-limited two-term Mayor Gavin Buckley steps down and four aldermen on the City Council decided to not run for reelection.
The volume of uncounted mail-in and provisional ballots means that, in each alderman race and the mayoral race, it is statistically possible for a trailing candidate to still win, if unlikely in some cases.
Ward 1
Current Alderman Harry Huntley, who was appointed last year, had a majority of in-person votes in Ward 1, home to the city’s historic downtown and the most competitive alderman primary, receiving 256 total in-person votes. Kathleen McDermott was in second place with 162 votes, followed by Ron Gunzburger with 67, Genevieve Torri with 10, and Ben Bramsen with nine.
McDermott and Gunzburger each posted on their campaign social media accounts after the in-person vote tallies, reminding voters that the count is not over yet.
Bramsen accepted the results of the initial vote count in a Facebook post late Tuesday.
“I look forward to meeting with our winning Ward 1 Alderman candidate in the coming days and weeks, as well as others in this election, so we can work together to take care of our working class community, our working poor, our forgotten class, and all of our most vulnerable and underserved communities,” Bramsen wrote.
At least 378 mail-in ballots were mailed or placed in a ballot box by election day in Ward 1.
Tom Krieck, an unaffiliated candidate, will appear on the November ballot in Ward 1.
Ward 3
Keanuú Smith-Brown, a seventh grade teacher, led in Ward 3, with 219 in-person votes. Smith-Brown’s competitor, Debbie Odum, had 44 in-person votes.
One hundred and thirty ballots had reached the county by election day through a drop box or the mail.
Unaffiliated candidate Mike Dye, an engineer, will face the Ward 3 Democratic primary winner in the general election.
The current Ward 3 alderman, Pindell Charles, endorsed Odum and did not run for reelection due to her mayoral bid.
Ward 4
The Ward 4 primary is the tightest race for in-person votes with a two-vote lead for Coren Eve Makell, a former city community engagement manager, who got 86 votes. Janice Elaine Allsup-Johnson, a former Anne Arundel County government employee, had 84 in-person votes.
The county had received at least 106 ballots through the mail or through a drop box by election day.
There are no Republican or unaffiliated candidates running in the Ward 4 general election.
Ward 6
Craig Cussimanio, a stay-at-home dad, was in the lead for in-person votes in Ward 6 with 112 against Diesha Contee, a community navigator, who had 69.
At least 110 people in Ward 6 voted by mail or through a drop box.
The primary election winner will be up against Republican George Michael Gallagher in November.
Other wards
Candidates who were unopposed in their party primaries automatically moved on to the November general election. They are O’Shea in the mayoral election; Krieck in Ward 1; Democratic incumbent Karma O’Neill and Republican Kenneth Vincent in Ward 2; Dye in Ward 3; Democratic incumbent Brooks Schandelmeier and Republican Kyriacos (Jack) Papaleonti in Ward 5; Gallagher in Ward 6; Democratic incumbent Robert Savidge in Ward 7; and Democrat Frank Thorp and unaffiliated candidate Will Cunha in Ward 8.
The rest of the count
Officials had received back by 5 p.m. Tuesday about 1,600 of more than 2,000 mail-in ballots they had distributed. On Tuesday, they will count those ballots and provisional ballots as well.
The mailing of mail-in ballots to voters, applications for mail-in ballots and other election-related mail had been delayed due to a problem at a Baltimore mail sorting facility. The county’s board of elections, which handles election mail for the city, did not receive any mail regarding the city election from mid-August to Sept. 8. On Sept. 8, the county received about 800 pieces of mail related to the election.
City officials urged voters to place their mail-in ballots in drop boxes to avoid any further issues with the postal service.
In total, nearly half of Annapolis votes could be cast by mail-in ballot. The heavy use of mail-in ballots comes even as President Donald Trump, a Republican, has made unsubstantiated claims about the security of voting by mail, including calling for the end of the practice. Courts across the country have upheld the process.
Have a news tip? Contact Katharine Wilson at kwilson@baltsun.com.
