Despite anecdotal reports of high voter turnout, Republican operatives sent out warnings early Tuesday that low turnout might endanger Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s bid for re-election.
“Our internal poll tracking is showing that turnout is light in our key counties. If this trend continues through the rest of theday we may face real trouble,” a noon e-mail to Ehrlich supporters said. “In 2002 we won because of the incredible turnout. Our latest comparison of turnout, shows a decline that could put the election in jeopardy.”
Democratic leaders pounced on the e-mail, which asked voters to forward it to 10 of their friends.
“He is scared to death and in danger of losing his job,” said David Paulson, president of the Maryland Democratic Party. “Given all of the misleading sample ballots, all the trickery, … it sounds like he?s kind of desperate.”
Ehrlich supporters downplayed the e-mail as simply a motivational get-out-the-vote message.
“The opposition is trying to make more of it than it really is,” campaign spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said. “Nobody concedes the election at 1 p.m.”
Despite the Republican appeal, poll judges around the region reported high turnout early in the day.
Carroll County election judges reported a higher-than-usual turnout for a nonpresidential election.
An entire gym was packed with voters between 7 and 8 a.m. at Sykesville?s Carrolltowne Elementary School, where two of the county?s busiest precincts are housed, said Peter O?Sullivan, an election judge.
“It has been unusually steady,” election judge Doris Wagner said. “But we have some tough races, some close races.”
Judges at South Carroll High School said more voters had cast ballots by 11 a.m. Tuesday than they had the entire day on the Sept. 12 primary.
Turnout was heavy at several voting precincts in Ellicott City in Howard County, poll workers said.
“It?s very exciting,” said Vonda Hebron, an election judge at a precinct at Burleigh Manor Middle School. “People tend to come out more in the general election.”
About two-thirds of the 383 voters who turned out in the primary election at the precinct had voted by early morning said Alex Wissel, another election judge at the school.
Baltimore City reported low turnout early in the day ? more than 4,000 votes behind the 2002 general election by 11 a.m.
By 5 p.m., however, city voter turnout had shot ahead ? 132,000 city residents had cast their vote, compared to 106,000 in the 2002 election.
Economic policy contributed to the turnout, at least in the case of welder Henry Lewis, 74, of West Baltimore. “I gotta have a change, somehow. Anybody under $30,000 [in income], the government just isn?t for them. The tax breaks should have been from the bottom up, not the top down.”
Staff Writers Kelsey Volkmann and Tawanda Johnson and researcher Karine Abalyan contributed to this report.
Part of the Baltimore Examiner’s 2006 Election Coverage
