Primary Day: Polls open in DC, Maryland

Tuesday is primary day in D.C. and Maryland, and it’ll most likely be an election day like no other.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led both D.C. and Maryland to significantly loosen the process for getting a mail-in ballot, so it likely won’t be a typical Election Night, with candidates and campaign workers breathlessly waiting for the latest vote counts. Rather, Tuesday is the deadline in both places for mail-in ballots to be postmarked, and votes will likely be counted for days.

Here’s what to look for:

If you’re voting in person, you can check out the list of locations with wait times.

In the District, the race to watch is in the Democratic primary for the Ward 2 D.C. Council seat, where Jack Evans, who held the post for 28 years, resigned in January before he was expelled by the rest of the council over ethics violations, and is running to regain his seat. Other candidates in the race are Patrick Kennedy, Kishan Putta, Jordan Grossman, Daniel Hernandez, Brooke Pinto, Yilin (Ellen) Zhang and John Fanning.

Evans flirted with the idea of running in the June 16 special election to fill out the rest of his term, but ultimately decided against it.

In Ward 4, incumbent Brandon Todd is running against Janeese Lewis George and Marlena Edwards.

In Ward 7, incumbent Vincent Gray is being challenged by Kelvin Brown, Anthony Lorenzo Green, Rebecca J. Morris, Veda Rasheed and James Leroy Jennings.

In Ward 8, incumbent Trayon White is up against Stuart Anderson, Mike Austin and Yaida Ford.

The presidential primary is on the ballot too, but President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are the only two major-party candidates still running.

The District really wanted people to vote by mail, so as to reduce the number of people lined up and standing in polling places, so they mailed an absentee ballot application to anyone who asked for one. The deadline to ask was May 26.

Mail-in ballots have to be postmarked by Tuesday and be in to the Board of Elections within a week. You can check to see whether your ballot was counted on the Board of Elections site.

If you don’t have a mail ballot, or you aren’t registered, you can still vote at 20 in-person voting locations set up across the District; you can register and vote at any one of them. You’ll need to wear a mask, bring proof of residence and most likely, the D.C. Elections Board said, wait quite a while. Here’s a map of voting centers, as well as a list with wait times. They’re open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The presidential race is set, but there are plenty of other choices in Maryland on Tuesday. All eight seats in the U.S. House are holding primaries, and a whopping two-dozen Democratic candidates are in the running to be mayor of Baltimore. Ex-Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned last year after she was sentenced to three years in prison on conspiracy and tax-evasion charges.

In Montgomery County, 13 candidates are running for an at-large seat on the council, and three for the open Board of Education seat.

To check out the options in your area, have a look at your county’s sample ballot:

Whereas in D.C. each voter was mailed an application for a mail ballot, the Maryland Board of Elections just mailed each voter a mail-in ballot straight away. It has to be postmarked Tuesday to count, and you can check its progress online at the Board of Elections site.

“Pay attention,” said Nikki Charlson, the deputy administrator at the Maryland Board of Elections. “If you put your ballot in a mailbox, make sure it’ll be picked up [Tuesday].”

The Maryland State Board of Elections says there have been some instances where a mail-in ballot was deemed “undeliverable” by the United States Post Office, but categorized as “voted and returned” in the electronic poll books. Those voters will be allowed to vote by provisional ballot. The board says it’s still working to find out how many mail-in ballots were affected.

If you can’t vote by mail, there’ll be at least one voting center in each county to drop off your ballot, and more in the bigger ones. Check the Board of Elections site for the full list. If you’re not registered to vote yet, you can do that there too. They’re open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

WTOP’s Jack Moore, Alejandro Alvarez and Michelle Basch contributed to this report.