The hot Republican race to send veteran congressman Wayne Gilchrest packing was put on ice Tuesday as polls stayed open an extra 90 minutes to cope with traffic gridlock throughout the region brought on by freezing rain late in the day.
Due to the late poll closing, authorized by a circuit court judge after a petition from the state elections board, voteswere being counted late and people arriving after the original 8 p.m. closing time were voting by provisional ballot.
The campaigns of the three major contenders, Sen. Andy Harris of Baltimore County, Sen. E.J. Pipkin of Cecil County and nine-term incumbent Gilchrest, were not sure how the weather would affect the outcome.
“The most committed show up,” said Harris campaign manager Chris Meekins. “These are folks who want to see a change. I think that?s what?s going to drive people to the polls.”
The desire of hard-core social conservatives to dump the more moderate, pro-life Gilchrest was long seen as a force that would bring out voters regardless of the February weather.
Gilchrest was awaiting returns at the Comfort Inn in Chestertown. Chief of staff Tony Caligiuri said it was not clear what effect the weather would have on the contest.
Pipkin?s campaign manager Andi Morony said the poll extension came as a surprise and prolonged the candidate?s departure for his own party at Annie?s restaurant in Kent Narrows.
Die-hard supporters waited in gridlock as highway crews cleaned a wreck from a jackknifed tractor-trailer on the icy Severn River Bridge to make it to Pipkin?s headquarters over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Pipkin was “literally standing out in the rain, sign-waving, in the cold, nasty wind,” Morony said.
Examiner staff writer Jaime Malarkey contributed to this report.
