Voter Turnout

While competitive races brought voters out in some areas of Maryland, many people chose to sit out Tuesday's election, producing what could be the lowest turnout figure in years. Elections officials weren't expected to have complete results until Wednesday, but reports from poll judges, candidates and voters indicated turnout was light throughout the state. Primary elections generally have lower turnout than general elections, but political watchers said that voters seemed even less enthused than usual about Tuesday's races.

On Monday night, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the O'Malley administration's proposal to make it easier to cast a ballot in Maryland despite lingering criticism from some in the GOP that somehow early voting and same-day voter registration will lead to an outbreak of voter fraud. That is about as likely as Rep. Paul Ryan endorsing Amtrak, food stamps and an expansion of Obamacare in his next budget proposal. A far better criticism of the measure is that it doesn't go far enough, or perhaps that it imposes an expensive obligation on local government without providing for a funding source.

If you needed a quiet place to relax yesterday, one of the county's 68 election polling precincts would have filled the bill quite nicely.By 3 p.m., with half the precincts reporting, only 8 percent of the county's registered voters had turned out to select their party's candidates in the statewide primary election.Bored election workers sat idle in churches and schools for much of the day and candidates stood out in the hot sun eagerly shaking the few hands they could get a hold of."It's kind of a ho-hum election," said Tom Hatheway after voting at Longfellow Elementary School.

Expanding the opportunity for qualified residents to vote in an election is seldom, if ever, a bad thing, so Gov. Martin O'Malley's decision to expand early voting and seek same-day registration in Maryland is a welcome development. Too bad that Republicans in Annapolis are already lining up against the measures on purely partisan grounds. One of the more notable features of the 2012 General Election was the high early-voter turnout in Maryland. Some people waited for hours, particularly in Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, to cast a ballot before Election Day. Altogether, more than 430,000 Marylanders took advantage of early voting (about 16 percent of the total votes cast)

ONE REFRAIN heard during the Washington-area sniper rampage was that voters in Montgomery and Prince George's counties would shun the polls if the killer were not caught by Election Day, changing the outcome of the gubernatorial race. So we can add snipers to bad weather, illness and a myriad other reasons why so many people don't vote and, as a result, why some candidates win for the wrong reasons. American voter turnout historically has been low. In Maryland, only one-third of registered voters go to the polls in primary elections.

Lou Carter, the chief Democratic election judge at a Bolton Hill polling place, had a simple assesment of yesterday's primary turnout:"It's pathetic."That was the sentiment across much of the state, as only about 30 percent of those eligible voted, despite good weather and a long list of races. That fell below the 35 percent turnout forecast by usually accurate election board officials.At Carter's polling place, less than a quarter of the eligible voters turned out to cast ballots."There doesn't seem to be any controversy.

Today's mayoral election in Annapolis may hinge on how many voters go to the polls.That's the analysis of supporters of the three candidates, Democratic incumbent Alfred A. Hopkins, Republican Laurance Vincent and independent Dennis M. Callahan.All three candidates promise to have volunteers on the streets encouraging registered voters to cast ballots and providing transportation to those who need it."In the end, it will come down to who is the most organized and gets their people to polls," said a Hopkins campaign worker.

Voter turnout in Maryland was not as overwhelming as expected. About 76 percent of registered voters headed to the polls or voted absentee, far short of the projected 85 percent turnout that would have set a record and that elections officials had predicted. The number of ballots cast, however, did reach a high of 2.6 million, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. Only 66 percent of registered voters in Baltimore City turned out, according to preliminary data. Turnout was higher in Baltimore County, at 75 percent.

A headline about the Cambodian elections in The Sun yesterday referred to the Khmer Rouge as Communists. Though the Khmer Rouge was Marxist through the mid-1980s, the political party of which it is a part now formally espouses "democratic socialism" rather than Marxism-Leninism.The Sun regrets the error.PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia's head of state, announced yesterday that he has abandoned plans to set up a coalition government that included the Khmer Rouge. He said internationally supervised elections this week proved that the Maoist rebels had no place in Cambodia's future.

WASHINGTON -- Voter participation is running at a record low rate in this year's presidential primaries, with four out of five of those eligible to vote staying home, according to a new study.A total of 18.9 percent of voting-age Americans have taken part ** in primaries so far, the non-partisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate reported yesterday. The previous record low for a primary season was 20.6 percent in 1984.Compared with 1988, turnout this year is off nearly 12 percent, the report said.

A week after the election, Mitt Romney, on a conference call with his National Finance Committee, recently blamed his loss on "gifts" President Obama promised to Blacks, Hispanics and young voters ("Obama's 'gifts' to voters fueled his victory, Romney says," Nov. 15). He went on to state that the president followed "the old playbook" of wooing special interests with targeted gifts and initiatives. When I read this in the New York Times, I was bewildered by the nonsensical nature of the comment.

Voter turnout in Maryland in 2012's general election dropped by more than 8 percentage points from 2008 but President Obama's vote percentage slipped much less than in  other states, according to the State Board of Elections. Unofficial figures show a turnout of 69.04 percent compared with the spectacular 77.63 percent registered in Obama's first election. But voting appeared to be off roughly equally among both Democrats and Republicans. Obama's support dropped a half point from 2008 -- 61.4 percent compared with the 61.9 percent he garnered against John McCain.

Next week's election might be short on candidates and contests - besides the county school board, no county or state elected officials are up for election this year - but it doesn't lack for drama and hotly debated issues. On Tuesday, Nov. 6, Howard County voters will get to vote on some remarkably tight contests. Locally, voters will decide the aforementioned school board race, in which six candidates, including two incumbents, are vying for three open slots on a board that will have to work with a new superintendent to maintain the school system's quality reputation.

Five weeks before the election, a measure to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland has seen a surge of support and is now favored by likely voters, 49 percent to 39 percent, a new Baltimore Sun poll has found. But at this stage, most voters are opposed to the gambling expansion law, according to the poll. And the electorate is conflicted about a measure to give illegal immigrants more access to higher education, with similar percentages supporting the law and opposing it. The outcome of all three referendums will be decided by a Maryland electorate in which the majority Democrats are expected to turn out in large numbers to support President Barack Obama.

Speaking last week at a regular meeting of the Edgewood Community Council, Jansen Robinson touched upon one of the greatest disgraces of American civic life, namely that too many people just can't be bothered to vote. Robinson, who has been an Edgewood community activist for a number of years and has made an unsuccessful run for public office, also hit the nail on the head when he enumerated the penalty for not voting, namely being neglected by the government. As Robinson eloquently put it: "If we lived up to our potential we would never have to ask elected officials for anything.

Baltimore activists say they're launching a campaign to vote down a change to the city charter that would push local elections back one year - effectively giving MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeand others an extra year in office. "Once voters realize they're adding an extra year for themselves, they're going to vote it down," said Hassan Giordano, who - along with civil rights leader Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, members of the League of Women Voters and State Del. Jill Carter - is heading the Baltimore Election Group.

The top mayoral contenders were battling over the air waves as Baltimoreans began trickling to the polls today to select Democratic and Republican nominees for mayor, comptroller and the City Council.Barbara E. Jackson, the city's elections board administrator, predicted that voter turnout would be the lowest in years, perhaps 30 percent. During the last municipal primary in 1987, turnout was about 46 percent. The lowest mayoral primary turnout in recent years was in 1979, when 32 percent of the registered voters went to the polls.

I read with interest Blaine Taylor's letter about the voter turnout in the primary in last week's edition of the Towson Times ("Dems take notice: GOP turnout shows support for that party's team," April 11) because I had a conversation with a gentleman who told me he hadn't voted since he was a Democrat — and the primary was only for Republicans. What we need to do is better educate the public so that more will vote and they won't just vote for familiar names. That way, maybe some new candidates like Blaine Taylor will be voted in, and maybe even some Republicans, so our state won't be so one-sided.

Voter turnout for the presidential primary Tuesday was Maryland's lowest in at least 32 years. About 21 percent of registered voters cast a ballot Tuesday, according to early tallies from the Maryland Board of Elections. That figure does not include absentee and provisional ballots, which may push up the final total, but officials said turnout won't reach 25 percent. That is the previous record low — set in 1996 — in the 32 years for which statewide records are available. "Voters know when there's a real election and when there's not a real election," said John Willis, a political science professor at the University of Baltimore and former Maryland secretary of state.