Absentee Ballots

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. warned yesterday that a shortage of absentee ballots is "approaching crisis proportions" and asked the state elections administrator to develop contingency plans if more cannot be delivered in time. Maryland elections chief Linda H. Lamone acknowledged that some counties had run out of ballots or had not received all they need, with the election 11 days away. But she said more deliveries were scheduled, and described the problems as manageable. Demand for absentee ballots is high after a push by Ehrlich and others for the use of the paper alternative in the aftermath of the Sept.

As Carroll County prepares to head to the polls Tuesday, some voters, in fact many more than usual, have gotten a head start. More than 6,000 county residents have requested absentee ballots for the general election - nearly three times the number of people who submitted absentee votes in the 2002 gubernatorial election, according to Patricia K. Matsko, Carroll elections director. "I kept thinking there was going to be a large number of absentees, indicated by a lot of people interested in the governor and U.S. Senate race," Matsko said.

After nearly four tense hours counting about 3,000 absentee ballots, Howard County elections officials declared Republican incumbent Marna L. McLendon the unofficial winner yesterday in the race for state's attorney, ending an unexpectedly close contest.Supporters of McLendon and Democratic challenger Timothy J. McCrone -- but not the candidates -- watched as elections officials opened the ballots one by one and fed them into a machine. From 10:10 a.m. to 1:51 p.m. about two dozen people waited in the elections office in Ellicott City until the total vote was tallied:McLendon, 38,906; McCrone, 38,791.

Two of Baltimore's high-profile Democratic mayoral candidates launched yesterday a barrage of more than 320 television commercials targeting undecided voters during the final weekend of the campaign while a third is targeting African-American voters in particular by saturating certain cable television shows with more than 700 spots scheduled to run before Tuesday's primary.The blitz came on a day when a candidate for City Council president had to clarify an "endorsement" from NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, city elections officials noted a rise in absentee ballots and campaigns took to city street corners with workers waving at intersections clogged with honking drivers flashing the thumbs-up sign.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. created a blue-ribbon panel yesterday to examine whether Maryland should open some polls a week before election day, allow more people to use absentee ballots and make other changes to encourage more voting. Ehrlich asked a nine-member bipartisan commission, headed by former U.S. Attorney George Beall, to submit its recommendations for possible changes in election law by January, in time for the governor to submit legislation to the General Assembly. The panel includes lawyers, a county elections administrator, and Frances Hughes Glendening, a Federal Elections Commission lawyer and the ex-wife of Ehrlich's predecessor, Parris N. Glendening.

Newly elected Howard County school board member Diane Mikulis wasted no time yesterday preparing for a four-year term that begins next month, while Mary Kay Sigaty remained optimistic that she would fill the second seat available on the five-member board. With all 98 county precincts accounted for, Mikulis received 67,726 votes, or 39.2 percent. Sigaty was leading by 2,625 votes over Frank Aquino, but election officials have yet to count some 10,500 absentee and provisional ballots, said Betty Nordaas, Howard's election chief.

In one of the closest elections in recent history, the race for two seats on the Carroll County Board of Education will come down to the uncounted absentee ballots, leaving the winners unknown until tomorrow. Although election officials expect to have an unofficial total by then, they won't have official results until Nov. 17, when all overseas ballots have been returned and tallied. With all 43 of precincts reporting, Thomas G. Hiltz of Woodbine was in first place with 27,779 votes. Susan Holt of Sykesville was second with 24,839 votes, followed by Lisa Breslin of Westminster with 24,324 and Stephen M. Nevin of Finksburg with 21,981.

In a race tighter than expected, longtime Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank Weathersbee was leading his Republican challenger, Eric Grannon, by nearly 4,000 votes, as more than 7,000 absentee ballots were being counted Thursday and Friday. Grannon, 38, an attormey whose private practice largely handles antitrust and business matters, would have to garner more than 75 percent of the votes cast in absentee and provisional ballots to unseat Weathersbee, 66, who has 22 years on the job. "We're pretty confident that the absentee votes will fall the way the precincts have," Weathersbee said Thursday.

The battle for two seats on Howard County's Circuit Court is over -- with absentee ballots unlikely to change the outcome -- but voters' apparent rejection of the county's first black judge has left questions as bitter as the campaign itself.The day after the vote, the two camps debated whether the narrow defeat of Donna Hill Staton turned on issues of race.A Sun analysis of poll results showed that Hill Staton trailed her running mate, Diane O. Leasure, by about two percentage points everywhere but in Columbia, which has an African-American population of about 20 percent and prides itself on racial tolerance.

Incumbent Stephen C. Bounds held a comfortable lead over a field of 17 other Howard County school board candidates last night, according to preliminary results in the nonpartisan primary election. Bounds, who says the county should give residents more of a voice in redistricting, had 8,414 votes -- or 11 percent -- with 85 precincts reporting. Following him were Virginia Charles with 6,509 votes, Jerry D. Johnston with 6,426 votes and Patricia S. Gordon with 6,265 votes. Glenn Amato had 6,049 votes, and Michele Williams had 6,010.