Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. saw his slim lead over Republican Andy Harris more than double yesterday as election judges began to open absentee ballots in the 1st Congressional District.
In totals that now include absentee ballots from Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties - Republican strongholds where Harris had hoped to close the gap with his rival - Kratovil has expanded his lead to more than 1,800 votes.
The 40-year-old prosecutor from the Eastern Shore now appears on the verge of an upset in a district that has been held by the GOP since 1991, a victory that would give Democrats their seventh out of Maryland's eight House seats and further increase the party's congressional majority.
"We're still in a holding pattern right now, but we're glad to be the ones in the lead," Kratovil spokesman Chris Lawlor said.
The count was slowed yesterday in Harford County - the only other county won by Harris at the polls on Tuesday - when observers for the Kratovil campaign raised concerns about how the ballots were being handled.
The objections delayed the start of the count by more than three hours. The Harris campaign cried foul.
"This is a clear case of trying to disenfranchise voters in an area where [Kratovil] did not do well," Harris campaign manager Chris Meekins said. Harris led Kratovil by 17 percentage points in Harford County in Tuesday's voting.
Lawlor said the Kratovil campaign had not made a formal complaint.
"It's not anything out of the ordinary to look at the procedures or the actual ballots themselves so that if something is procedurally done wrong to make note of it and to look back at it," he said. "I'm sure we'll see different individual ballots, groups of ballots contested from both parties."
Kratovil and Harris remained out of sight as elections boards in 12 counties began counting more than 25,000 absentee ballots in what has been a bitterly contested race. The district, now represented by moderate Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest, includes the Eastern Shore and parts of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford counties.
With eight counties reporting absentee ballots yesterday, Kratovil's lead over Harris grew from 915 to 1,871 of the more than 340,000 votes counted so far. Libertarian candidate Richard James Davis loomed as a spoiler with 8,259 votes.
The tally does not include absentee ballots from Harford, which are expected to favor Harris, or those from Cecil, Talbot and Worcester counties, where Kratovil was ahead on Election Day.
