Howard County Democrats were celebrating a near total victory last night, as County Executive James N. Robey and a majority of County Council members won four-year terms - keeping control of county government.
Democrats also won a majority of seats in the county's General Assembly delegation - but did not capture the new District 13 state Senate seat, which went to Republican state Sen. Sandra B. Schrader in a close contest.
Democrat Timothy J. McCrone is the new county state's attorney, winning with a 56 percent majority, and Sheriff Charles M. Cave, also a Democrat, kept his seat.
Courtney Watson won the nonpartisan school board seat by a wide margin.
Robey beat Republican Steven H. Adler with 58 percent of the vote.
"This is about what we figured. I'm sure there's going to be a lot more thrill tomorrow than there is now. I'm tired. It's grueling, but it's well worth it," Robey said.
Adler was philosophical. "We're going to come up a little short. We had a great time and made a lot of new friends, but it didn't work out this time," he said.
Republican Party leader Louis M. Pope said he is satisfied, despite not gaining any ground in local offices.
"We may end up with the status quo. I think things turned out well," he said, noting Schrader's victory and Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s victory in the county.
Four years ago, Democrat Parris N. Glendening took Howard County with 53 percent of the vote.
Newcomer David Rakes will represent east Columbia, winning the County Council seat vacated by 20-year member C. Vernon Gray, while Kenneth S. Ulman is the new west Columbia council member, replacing retiring Mary C. Lorsung. Both are Democrats. Republicans Brian Harlin and Joan Lancos lost those races.
"The voters did what I thought they would do," Ulman said.
Lancos said, "I believed people would look at my record and experience. But what it came down to is people could not get over the fact that I'm a registered Republican."
Guy J. Guzzone, the only incumbent Democrat on the council seeking re-election, easily won a second term representing District 3, covering the southeastern county.
Guzzone said his 66 percent majority "is about as good as you get. Working with Jim Robey, we're going to have a great four years," he said.
The two Republican County Council members, Allan H. Kittleman from the western county and Christopher J. Merdon of Ellicott City, also easily won re-election, with Merdon beating Lynne Bergling and Kittleman winning over Stephen Musselman.
McCrone replaces two-term Republican Marna L. McLendon, who is moving to Arizona.
As predicted, the turnout was much heavier than in the Sept. 10 primary.
At River Hill High School in Clarksville, 107 people were waiting to vote when the polls opened at 7 a.m. By 1 p.m., nearly half of those registered at Atholton High had voted.
At Waverly Elementary School on Route 99, Willa Brooks, chief election judge, said 617 people voted by 4 p.m., roughly one-third more than the total for the primary.
One major voting problem marred the day, and county police saved the day at Oakland Mills Middle School.
People who used absentee ballots in the primary were told they must use them again - which was a mistake that discouraged an unknown number of people.
Barbara Cooper, president of the elections board, said the voter lists should have been purged of absentee users after the primary, but they were not. Janet Oken, whose daughter Rachel voted absentee in September, said they waited for an hour at Howard Community College for the confusion to be resolved.
"I see it as a big problem," said Wendy Fiedler, Democratic Party chairwoman. "You have to be concerned about the number of people who, at the first sign of trouble, gave up and left."
Thieves almost caused big trouble at Oakland Mills Middle, after a poll judge found her car trunk broken into at 5:45 a.m., and a large box of voter authorization cards missing. Police Sgt. Paul Steppe, searching the woods near the judge's Wimbledon Court home, found the cards, which voters must sign before casting their ballots.
Adler, managing partner of Savage Mill, ran a determined, if plodding, low-budget campaign, concentrating his criticism of Robey on a projected $18 million budget deficit that disappeared by late September. Fellow Republicans said his budget criticism never caught on with voters.
And despite a late primary challenge from Clark J. Schoeffield, who criticized the pace of development, Adler never adopted that theme, despite lingering unhappiness with large mixed-use developments such as Emerson and Maple Lawn Farms in southern Howard.
Adler's effort was also underfunded, raising less than half the $200,000 total Robey reported in the Aug. 20 campaign finance report - the last filed before the election.
"We executed our plan," Adler said a few days before the election.
Sun staff writers Jason Song, Laura Cadiz and Kristin Sette contributed to this article.