With 8 percent of precincts reporting, Montgomery County State?s Attorney Douglas Gansler led former Baltimore City State?s Attorney Stuart Simms for the Democratic primary for attorney general.
Gansler led Simms with 57 percent of the vote, compared to Simms? 42 percent. Disqualified candidate Tom Perez, a Montgomery County Council member, had 1 percent.
“We?re confident, but were not overconfident,” Gansler said. “We felt pretty good about the response we?ve gotten to our message at the polls.”
Gansler?s spokesman, Mike Morrill, said the candidates might have to wait until today to know definitively who had won.
“I?m not sure we?ll have a clear winner tonight,” he said.
Elections snafus in several counties, particularly Montgomery, caused many citizens to file provisional ballots, which are not counted the night of the election, Morrill said.
In Montgomery County, election officials failed to deliver computer cards to activate electronic voting machines, causing a judge to grant a petition for the county Board of Elections to extend voting hours to 9 p.m.
Baltimore City polls were also kept open until 9 p.m. after a city judge ordered the change when some poll workers failed to show up on time.
“We?ve been worried about this since 7 a.m.,” Morrill said. “We?re very, very concerned that large numbers of people were turned away from the polls and potentially disenfranchised. It?s fundamental to American democracy that when you want to case a vote you can.”
Simms? campaign manager Larry Gibson said the voting problems may or may not had an affect on the results.
“It?s hard to know what affect it had,” Gibson said. “I know of problems in Howard County. I know of difficulties in Baltimore County. I don?t detect any pattern.”
The two men were running to replace Attorney General Joseph Curran, who is retiring after 20 years in office.
The winner will now face Republican nominee Scott Rolle, the Frederick County State?s Attorney.
“We?ve been running very hard all summer, but it will now be a different kind of race,” Rolle said. “If Stu Simms wins, he is certainly a candidate of substance but we differ on many issues. Doug Gansler will bring different issues entirely, including his Court of Appeals reprimand and his handling of the sniper trial.”
