By Sean Yoes
AFRO Staff Writer

(November 20, 2008) - Despite all the reports of people waiting hours to cast ballots and record voter turnout in some battleground states in the historic General Election, it seems Maryland, a solidly Democratic state, didn’t experience the overwhelming turnout many anticipated.

The Maryland State Board of Elections says the Nov. 4 General Election results won’t be made official until Monday, Nov. 24.

However, unofficial numbers from the board indicate voter turnout across the state did not increase as expected. In fact, there was a modest decrease in the voter turnout percentage. In Maryland, 76.38 percent of registered voters turned out on Nov. 4 this year compared to 78.03 percent in 2004, an almost two percent decline.

More people did actually cast more votes in Maryland in 2008 (2,621,187) than in 2004 (2,384,238). But reports show that the 2008 number of voters did not keep pace with the massive voter registration surge since the 2004 presidential election.

In Baltimore City, which voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- 87.2 percent compared to 11.7 percent for John McCain and Sarah Palin -- turnout fell short of some projections.

“I think basically it was about 13 points off from what I really thought would be the final,” said Armstead Jones Sr., director of the Baltimore City Board of Elections. Although the vote has not been officially certified, Jones estimates voter turnout in the city was about 72 percent.

“I thought we probably could have gotten as high as 85 [percent] because the momentum and all was jumping. I mean, people were really excited and then you got down to that day and for whatever reason, I guess, people…didn’t go and vote.”

In Baltimore City, there were 245,422 votes cast out of 364, 898 registered voters, as of Oct. 31. In Baltimore County, 378,967 votes were cast out of 500,711 registered voters. Although Baltimore County has 135,813 more registered voters than Baltimore City, more people cast votes for Obama in the city (214,385) than in the county (214,151).

“…voter turnout in the city was about 72 percent.”

And even though city turnout numbers have not been officially certified, there are certain polling places in the city that historically have higher turnout than others.
“We haven’t even broken down the numbers by precinct yet,” said Jones. “But I think at Charles and the 39th precinct, the numbers were probably high and at school 85 over in East Baltimore probably was high…and Northwood Elementary. Those are some of the larger precincts.”

State Sen. Nathaniel McFadden represents the 45th Legislative District in East Baltimore and, historically, several precincts in his district boast the highest voter turnout in the city.  “The 26th Ward and 26th Precinct, 27th Ward and Sixth Precinct, Hazelwood Elementary-Middle, which is the 26th Ward and 27, 28 and 29th precincts were all very heavy,” McFadden said.

But like many, the veteran politician is also puzzled about the lower than expected turnout numbers.  “I really don’t know,” he said. “I know early on there were just lines around the block and it seemed like it fell off in the middle of the day. But 72 [percent] is a good number. We expected 80; we still have some work to do but we achieved our result.”

Many argue the registration numbers were run up in Maryland, a state that was virtually in no danger of going for McCain, to help specifically in the battleground border states of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

That surge of new voters was very evident before Nov. 4 at the Obama for America Baltimore headquarters at the corner of Eutaw and Franklin Streets.
“In less than a week we literally registered over 1,000 new voters—in less than a week,” reported Jonathan Carpenter, the director of Obama for America in Baltimore, when the office opened in September.

“We have literally signed up over 200 volunteers in less than a week at just this location—not going out into the city and participating in voter registration drives but in just this one location. That’s momentum,” Carpenter said in October.

And that momentum carried thousands of volunteers from Maryland into Virginia and Pennsylvania to turn out the vote in those states. “We’re an exporting state,” former Maryland Secretary of State John Willis told The Washington Post. “Candidates come here to raise money and get us to go elsewhere.