Election officials in two Maryland jurisdictions are still counting ballots weeks after Election Day but state officials say they expect the canvass to wrap on Friday.

The results of the remaining counts won’t change election results, but election officials are committed to counting every last ballot, said Maryland State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis. The tallying will end well before next week’s certification deadline.

A raft of mail-in ballots, and provisional ballots cast on Election Day, added labor intensive counting in Prince George’s County and Baltimore, and also in Montgomery County, which finished its canvass Monday, according to a local board spokesperson.

Last he looked, well over 100,000 provisionals were cast statewide, DeMarinis said, and these ballots are counted last.

Provisional ballots are used when there’s any question about a voter’s registration, voting method or polling place. Often voters forget they requested a mail-in ballot, or just changed their mind and decided to show up to vote in person. Sometimes poll workers can’t find a voters name on the rolls or a voter shows up at the wrong polling place. DeMarinis said the latter historically makes up the bulk of provisional ballots.

It’s too soon to tell why so many provisional ballots were needed in the general, he said, but he plans to crunch that data once the last ballot has been counted.

Voters can check whether their vote has been counted on the state election board website.

Streamlining for the midterms

Post-election, DeMarinis studies how voters cast their ballots so he can continuously streamline future elections.

In 2026, Marylanders will vote for governor, state lawmakers, county executives and county council members, and midterm election ballots require more customization by jurisdiction and precinct. A significant number of provisional ballots could more broadly delay post-election canvassing, DeMarinis said, because these ballots are counted after mail-ins, a popular voting method.

“I want to make sure everyone votes, votes a regular ballot and that it counts,” DeMarinis said.

DeMarinis said he’ll consider additional messaging that urges mail-in voters to stick with the method they chose rather than switch to vote in person. Provisionals slow down the count, he said, because they are counted last. About 100,000 of the roughly 880,000 mail-in ballots requested were never returned.

Elections used to be held on just one day, but options like early in-person voting and mail-ins have extended the voting period. Marylanders now have 43 days to vote, starting with the open period for submitting mail-in ballots and ending on Election Day.

That extra time adds to the overall canvass time, DeMarinis said. State law allows officials to start tallying mail-in ballots days before early voting starts, and DeMarinis’ team counted a significant number of mail-ins ahead of Election Day and continues the count of them two days after.

“This was a team effort,” he said. “Between state and local boards with federal and state partners. Everyone chipped in.”

Mail-in ballots are ‘here to stay’

The first presidential election since the global COVID-19 emergency showed Marylanders preferred voting by mail and early in-person voting over showing up on Election Day, according to state election records.

Roughly one-quarter of about 3 million votes cast were done so by mail. Nearly 1 million people voted early in person. Less than 40% of voters showed up to polls on Election Day, according to unofficial state counts.

The remote vote, traditionally known as absentee voting, was essential to conducting the 2020 presidential election during the deadly COVID-19 outbreak, before a vaccine was available.

Back then, 50% of Maryland voters voted by mail. Four years later, demand stayed high and showed that the use of drop boxes and the U.S. Postal Service to vote may have become mainstream.

Maryland’s top election official said this proved to him that mail-in voting is here to stay.

“This is a method that Marylanders want to continue,” DeMarinis said. “This is not just a COVID outlier.”

Because so many voters chose mail-in voting, it may be worth revisiting the number of polling places Maryland uses, said Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a nonpartisan democracy watchdog. If roughly 25% of voters aren’t using polling stations, she asked: Do we really need that many open?

Antoine said mail-in ballots appeal to people who have nontraditional work hours or are always on the go. Others may be homebound, such as the elderly, or confined to a place, like a hospital, detention center or state prison. People who are detained and awaiting a trial or serving time for a misdemeanor can vote in Maryland.

Over time, voters have come to trust mailing their votes or placing their ballots in drop boxes, she said.

“I think it kind of proves what we’ve been saying for years, even before the pandemic,” Antoine said. “Voters want to be able to vote using options convenient to them.”