Primary Election Day in Maryland has come and gone with many voters apparently saving their strength for November.
While there was one high profile race, the larger story of the day was the voter turnout for the primary. The lack of buzz surrounding the races led to low turnouts at the polls. Campaign workers at Jesse B. Mason School in Temple Hills seemed disappointed in the low turnout.
“It’s been kind of slow today,” Dist. 6 Board of Education member Carolyn Boston, who was out supporting Henry P. Armwood’s school board re-election campaign, told the AFRO at 6 p.m.. “The last number we heard was 200, but that was at about 3 p.m.”
Boston’s concern was reflected in the real numbers as 14.6 percent of the 504,377 registered voters in Prince George’s showed up to vote. In 2008, when President Obama was running for election, 49 percent of the then 379,023 registered voters went to the polls.
In the highest profile race, incumbent U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin handily defeated State Sen. C. Anthony Muse with 74.3 percent of the vote to Muse’s 15.8. In Prince George’s, that number was 57.3 percent for Cardin and 38.4 for Muse.
Cardin was immediately congratulated by Gov. Martin O’Malley, who threw his support behind Cardin as soon as he knew Cardin was going to have a challenge on his hands. O’Malley took to Twitter on Election Night to praise him.
“Congratulations to @Senator Cardin,” he tweeted. “Looking forward to the victory party tonight.”
Not helping Muse’s cause was a last minute misstep in which his campaign distributed leaflets giving the breakdown of the racial disparity of U.S. Senators. In that leaflet, it singled out Jewish Senators from White Senators, a move that angered some.
“Looking at the document, the only implication I can draw is maybe there are too many Jews (in the Senate),” Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, told the Capital News Service.
“Clearly the only religion (Muse) is interested in identifying is Senator Cardin’s,” he continued.
Cardin will face former New York City Policeman and U.S. Secret Service Agent Daniel John Bongino in the general election
In other races, Rep. Donna Edwards, D.-Dist. 4, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D.-Dist. 5, both won their primary races with 94.5 and 86.4 percent of the vote respectively.
The real shockers came in the school board races, where the top two finishers in the primary move on to the general, as two college students received the most votes in their districts.
In Dist. 1, 19-year-old David Henry Murray has nearly 56 percent of the votes compared to 31.3 percent for Zabrina Epps. In Dist. 5, Board Chairwoman Verjeana Jacobs finished second with just over 25 percent of the vote to 18-year-old Raaheela Ahmed who garnered 34.5 percent of the vote.
In Dist. 4, Micah Watson is in the lead with 33.9 percent of the vote, but incumbent Patricia Eubanks is currently trailing Sandy John Vaughns by 10 votes with three precincts yet to report.
In Dist. 7, community activist Carletta Fellows leads incumbent Henry Armwood 33.9 percent to 23. 6 while in Dist. 8, incumbent Edward Burroughs III leads Andre Nottingham 66.8 percent to 15.5.
