Maryland's closest race for governor in 75 years is likely to be decided today as election officials across the state huddle to count absentee ballots.
Democrat Parris N. Glendening finished Tuesday with an unofficial 6,187-vote lead out of about 1.36 million total votes cast. Mrs. Sauerbrey was chipping away at that lead last night as a few counties began counting their absentee vote.
But Mr. Glendening said yesterday that he remained confident of victory.
"I know it was tight," he told reporters in Annapolis. "And I know it's still a few more votes to be counted. But I do believe in fact that we have won."
Even without a final tally, Mr. Glendening was acting like a governor-elect, greeting current Gov. William Donald Schaefer and discussing his plan for governing at a news conference in front of the State House.
After Tuesday night's nail-biting drama, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey worked at her Cockeysville campaign headquarters but took a day off from public appearances.
Her supporters gamely predicted that today's absentee count would erase Mr. Glendening's margin.
"Two-thirds of the absentee ballots were requested in areas that supported Ellen, and one-third from areas that supported Parris, so that bodes well for us," said Carol L. Hirschburg, a Sauerbrey spokeswoman. "We believe that when the fat lady starts singing, she'll be singing our song."
Ms. Hirschburg said the Sauerbrey campaign was investigating reports of irregularities at polling places in Baltimore, Baltimore County and elsewhere, although she refused to release specifics.
State election officials said they had received no formal complaints.
The campaign called the deputy general counsel of the Republican National Committee to Sauerbrey headquarters ,X yesterday to discuss the vote count.
45,000 absentee ballots
State election officials, who mailed out more than 50,000 absentee ballots, said voters completed and returned about 45,000 of them.
Only about 36 percent of the returned ballots belonged to residents of Prince George's and Montgomery counties and Baltimore -- the three areas of the state Mr. Glendening carried Tuesday.
Absentee ballots mailed from within the United States had to be postmarked by Monday and arrive at an election board by 4 p.m. yesterday.
Ballot envelopes postmarked from another country will still be counted if they arrive by Nov. 18.
Seven counties began tallying their absentee ballots late yesterday, while the remaining counties and Baltimore were to open and count their ballots today. That is expected to yield an unofficial winner, but election officials will not certify the results until they review all the returns tomorrow.
Even then, either candidate could demand a recount, which could further delay an official outcome.
Throughout the state yesterday, the tension was palpable at local election boards, where deputy sheriffs and -- in at least one case -- a private detective watched to ensure the integrity of the ballot counting.
Private detective watches
It wasn't always welcomed.
"We're all a little [annoyed] here. We did everything fair and square and legal, but our integrity was still questioned," said Richard L. Coss, the chairman of the election board in Washington County, where Mrs. Sauerbrey gained 256 votes.
Mr. Coss said Mrs. Sauerbrey sent a private detective to monitor the count. "I can't see that he did anything but try and upset the procedure. We had to do things we never had to do before. This whole thing has gotten completely crazy," Mr. Coss said.
As the first results from the absentee ballots began trickling in last night, Mrs. Sauerbrey was nibbling at Mr. Glendening's lead.
In Allegany County, she took 360 votes to his 318. In Kent County, she got 232 votes to his 168. And in Carroll County, she took 1,008 to Mr. Glendening's 475.
When Charles, Washington and Cecil counties came in, she had shaved his margin by 1,235 votes. Officials in St. Mary's quit counting at 11 p.m. and planned to resume the task this morning.
Despite the narrowing lead, David Seldin, a Glendening spokesman, found cause for optimism:
"What's significant is that we're matching or exceeding our Tuesday results in terms of the percentage in all of these. If the voter breakdown geographically matches the Tuesday results, we will win as expected."
Various people offered different theories as to how the two candidates would split the uncounted ballots elsewhere.
Republicans said many absentee voters tend to be members of the military or affluent people traveling on holiday or business, groups they said would support Mrs. Sauerbrey.
Democrats, meanwhile, pointed out that many absentee ballots are cast by the elderly and by students attending school out of state.
"Parris does well with seniors. Parris does well with students," said John T. Willis, a Glendening adviser.
Historically, election officials and others said, the pattern of absentee voting differs from county to county.
Barbara Feaga, Howard County's director of elections, said absentee ballots there generally mirror the results on Election Day. Mrs. Sauerbrey won the county by 53 percent, and Howard election officials had received 3,000 absentee ballots by late yesterday afternoon.
The board is scheduled to begin counting the absentee ballots this morning at 10, she said.
David Blumberg, chairman of Baltimore's Republican Party, said the city's absentee ballots seldom track those cast in the polls.
The reason?
One answer, he said, is that all the city's 1,100 Republican election judges are required to vote by absentee ballot -- meaning that this year they cast a quarter of the city's 3,553 absentee ballots.
"While in Baltimore City we lost 3-1 in polls, we're hoping to lose only 2-1 in absentees," he said. Baltimore's board of elections meets at 10 this morning for its count.
Meanwhile, he said, the cliffhanger finish to the race has taken its toll on partisans.
"I don't know how anybody on either side, who has been involved in the campaign, can sleep," Mr. Blumberg said.
At the city board of elections yesterday afternoon, Terri Marciszewski used a machine to date the 29 absentee ballot envelopes.
She took the ballots and put them in one of three large steel boxes locked in a Diebold safe at the election board's office in the city's Charles L. Benton Jr. Building off Baltimore Street.
In the city, absentee ballots, about the size of a standard sheet of paper, are designed to be read by a machine the size of a copier.
Other counties use different computerized ballots or paper ballots, said Richard E. Israel, an assistant attorney general.
Lawyers for the Sauerbrey camp yesterday concentrated their attention on today's count in Montgomery County, a Glendening stronghold with more than 8,700 absentee ballots to be counted.
After a day of haggling, the county election board agreed to hand over the actual applications sent in by voters seeking absentee ballots, which the Republicans had sought to check for ballot fraud.
The application includes an affidavit signed under penalty of perjury declaring a voter's identity and establishing a reason he or she needs an absentee ballot.
ABSENTEE BALLOTS
Democrat Parris N. Glendening's lead over Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey was cut to 4,956 votes yesterday as absentee ballots were counted in seven counties. Here is a breakdown of the absentee vote:
COUNTY ... ... ... ... ... GLENDENING ... ... ... SAUERBREY
Allegany .. .. ... ... ... 318 ... ... ... .. ... 360
Carroll ... .. ... ... ... 475 ... ... ... .. ... 1,008
Cecil ... ... ... .. .. .. 275 ... ... ... .. ... 418
Charles ... ... ... ... .. 347 ... ... ... .. ... 533
Kent ... ... ... ... .. .. 158 ... ... ... .. ... 233
Washington ... ... ... ... 521 ... ... ... .. ... 777
TOTAL ... ... ... .. .. .. 2,094 ... ... .. .. .. 3,329
Election officials were to tally the absentee ballot results today in the 16 remaining counties and Baltimore.
GOVERNOR
SG
.. ... ... ... TP ... ... PR ... ... Glendening ... ... Sauerbrey
Allegany .. ... ... 46 ... ... 46 ... ... 8,970 ... .. .. .. 11,928
Anne Arundel .. ... 155 .. ... 155 .. ... 53,400 .. .. .. .. 81,276
Baltimore Co. .. .. 180 .. ... 180 .. ... 99,774 .. .. .. .. 130,959
Baltimore ... .. .. 408 .. ... 408 .. ... 109,035 ... ... .. 36,909
Calvert ... ... ... 10 ... ... 10 ... ... 7,068 ... .. .. .. 10,967
Caroline .. ... ... 9 .. .. .. 9 .. .. .. 2,138 ... .. .. .. 4,350
Carroll ... ... ... 41 ... ... 41 ... ... 11,829 .. .. .. .. 30,767
Cecil ... ... .. .. 14 ... ... 14 ... ... 6,518 ... .. .. .. 11,591
Charles ... ... ... 28 ... ... 28 ... ... 9,827 ... .. .. .. 15,182
Dorchester .. .. .. 36 ... ... 36 ... ... 3,301 ... .. .. .. 4,986
Frederick ... .. .. 38 ... ... 38 ... ... 16,527 .. .. .. .. 30,196
Garrett ... ... ... 19 ... ... 19 ... ... 1,755 ... .. .. .. 5,960
Harford ... ... ... 54 ... ... 54 ... ... 22,159 .. .. .. .. 40,752
Howard ... .. .. .. 82 ... ... 82 ... ... 32,830 .. .. .. .. 37,731
Kent ... ... ... .. 10 ... ... 10 ... ... 2,654 ... .. .. .. 3,640
Montgomery .. .. .. 218 .. ... 218 ... .. 143,511 ... ... .. 101,256
Prince George's ... 193 .. ... 193 ... .. 111,464 ... ... .. 50,955
Queen Anne's ... .. 10 ... ... 10 ... ... 3,818 ... .. .. .. 7,133
St. Mary's .. .. .. 19 ... ... 19 ... ... 7,575 ... .. .. .. 10,678
Somerset ... ... .. 21 ... ... 21 ... ... 2,157 ... .. .. .. 3,689
Talbot ... .. .. .. 16 ... ... 16 ... ... 3,547 ... .. .. .. 6,818
Washington .. .. .. 47 ... ... 47 ... ... 10,880 .. .. .. .. 19,815
Wicomico ... ... .. 39 ... ... 39 ... ... 8,473 ... .. .. .. 12,517
Worcester .. ... .. 9 .. .. .. 9 .. .. .. 4,785 ... .. .. .. 7,753
Totals ... .. .. .. 1,702 .. .. 1,702 ... 683,995 ... ... .. 677,808
TP = total precincts; PR = precincts reporting