Baltimore Elections Officials Re-Certify Results

The Baltimore City Board of Elections has re-certified the primary election results.

As officials from the Maryland State Board of Elections looked on, the Baltimore City Board of Elections went back to work Wednesday morning, analyzing, scrutinizing and counting one last group of outstanding ballots.

The primary election results were re-certified by 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

State election officials only certify federal and statewide races, not citywide races, so the extra scrutiny was never about results.

"(We) reviewed some ballots today, provisionals that were to be accepted in full, and some partial, and did some rejections," said Armstead Jones, the city's elections director.

There were 555 provisional ballots found after a state review of the primary election results, 169 of which were deemed eligible and added in. That added up to a net gain of 40 votes for Sheila Dixon in the Democratic mayoral primary, not enough to change the outcome of that contest or any other.

Jones said his office will cast an even wider net for the general election.

"Of course, there are lessons to be learned on both sides, I believe. Of course, we had problems with election judges not showing up. That's always an issue," Jones said.

As for the state, this year's extra look at the results is purely about paper, process and provisional ballots.

"We'll be looking at the flow of that, in each polling place, and looking to see if there are ways that we can make the ballot more identifiable or prevent it from being scanned," said Nikki Baines Charlson, state deputy administrator of elections.

Baltimore City is not alone in this. Other jurisdictions also had a notable number of problematic provisional ballots.

State officials told 11 News one issue that has already been identified is that provisional and regular ballots look nearly identical. They're looking into technical and other solutions to separate the ballots while maintaining the secrecy of the ballot.

Re-certification of the city's primary election results triggers the countdown for any candidate to request a recount or file a court challenge.

There was just one campaign representative observing the process Wednesday, a Dixon supporter, who said the campaign hasn't decided what they'll do next.