With tens of thousands of ballots yet to be counted, the bitterly fought House race between Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. and Republican Andy Harris is unlikely to be settled before the end of next week, state officials said yesterday.
Kratovil, the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County, led Harris, a state senator from Cockeysville, by fewer than 1,000 of the more than 329,000 votes cast Tuesday in the contest for the seat now held by longtime Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest.
The tally doesn't include the more than 25,000 absentee ballots that elections officials are to begin counting today. That process is scheduled to continue through Nov. 14. An unknown number of provisional ballots are to be counted beginning next week.
Even in a Democratic year, a Kratovil win would be an upset in the district that combines the conservative Eastern Shore with Republican-leaning portions of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford counties. Gilchrest, a moderate Republican, was elected to nine terms before the conservative Harris stunned him in a hotly contested GOP primary this year.
Kratovil and Harris remained out of public view yesterday while waiting for the count to begin. Both campaigns were planning to send representatives to the district's county boards of elections today to keep an eye on the proceedings.
"Clearly, we won yesterday in the voting places," Kratovil spokesman Kevin Lawlor said. "We hope the same trend, the same will of the voters, will happen in the absentee ballots. There's no reason to believe that it won't."
Harris campaign manager Chris Meekins expressed a similar confidence.
"With 25,000 votes outstanding and only being down 915, this is a very good place to be," he said.
Kratovil led Harris with 160,915 votes to 160,000 in unofficial results posted online yesterday by the State Board of Elections. Libertarian candidate Richard James Davis loomed as a spoiler with 7,927 votes; 277 ballots were cast for write-in candidates.
According to the state board, 32,535 absentee ballots had been requested and 25,539 returned to the county boards through Tuesday. They include ballots requested by members of the military and other Marylanders living overseas.
Of the returned ballots, 11,371 came from Democrats, 10,924 from Republicans and 3,244 from independents and others. Three out of five, meanwhile, came from the Eastern Shore - a ratio that could favor Kratovil, a Stevensville resident who currently leads in all nine counties on that side of the Chesapeake. Harris, who represents Baltimore County in the state Senate, leads in Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford counties.
