Ball declares Howard victory; Cassilly claims win in Harford
Candidates for county executive candidates in Harford and Howard counties declared victory Tuesday night after running up leads in their races. In addition to those races, there were several competitive election matches in suburban Baltimore counties.
In Howard County, incumbent Democrat Calvin Ball has a lead of nearly 14,000 votes over Republican Allan Kittleman with more than 17,500 mail-in ballots to be counted.
“This isn’t my victory, it’s our victory,” Ball said, to cheers at Kahler Hall in Columbia on Tuesday. “A little over four years ago many people said it was impossible to become county executive. You made it possible, you gave so much of yourselves, not just for me but for Howard County.”
Tuesday’s vote was a rematch of the 2018 election in which Ball unseated the then-incumbent Kittleman.
All five incumbents in the Howard County Council races held large leads over their opponents Tuesday evening. And on Howard’s at-large school board race, Linfeng Chen held a slight lead, with 42,705 votes (27.32%), followed by Jacky McCoy with 41,522 (26.56%), Dan Newberger with 39,141 (25.04%) and Tudy Adler with 32,057 (20.51%). The top two are elected.
In Harford County, Republican state Sen. Bob Cassilly received more than two-thirds of the vote to defeat Democrat challenger Blane H. Miller.
“I’m just really thrilled to have gotten the numbers I’m getting out of the citizens of Harford County,” Cassilly said after his campaign party at Independent Brew in Bel Air on Tuesday. “I look forward to serving as their county executive for the next four years.”
With more than 22,000 mail-in ballots to be counted, Republicans are likely to maintain control of the Harford County Council. The GOP currently holds a 6-to-1 margin in the body.
On Harford County’s school board, two races are very close: Dennis Barry has 49.72% of the vote in District B, holding a narrow lead over Wade Sewell, who has 48.96%; and Tanya Tyo has 50.08% of the vote in District E, slightly more than Carol Pitt Bruce, who has 48.58%.
In Carroll County, most races were settled in the primary, with many Republicans running unopposed in Tuesday’s election. However, in the District 3 commissioner race, Republican Tom Gordon had more than two-thirds of the vote against Democrat Zach Hands.
The race for the three at-large Board of Education seats was Carroll County’s election of note. The slate of Tara Battaglia, Steve Whisler and James Miller led in the race Tuesday night.
Battaglia, who is running for another term on the school board, led with 20.46% of the votes (29,419), followed by Whisler at 19.51% (28,045) and Miller at 17.87% (25,694).
Incumbent Patricia Dorsey was in fourth place, with 15.04% of the votes (21,620), followed by Amanda Jozkowski (14.07%; 20,224) and Tom Scanlan (12.82%; 18,429). During the primary, Dorsey was the top vote-getter, followed by Jozkowski and Scanlan.
As of Monday, Carroll voters had submitted 13,135 mail-in ballots, which election officials will start counting Thursday.
“I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch,” Battaglia said, “Mail-in ballots still have to come in. I’m happy with the numbers and I will wait till everything is finalized.”