Early voting in the Maryland Primary begins tomorrow (June 14th). Marylanders can vote early, at locations around the state, for a week, until June 21st. Then, there’s a four-day break in voting until Election Day on Tuesday, June 26th. A reminder that if you are not yet registered to vote, you can register and vote on the same day -- if you vote early. You will not be able to register on Election Day.
The last time Maryland held a primary election for important offices like Governor, County Executive, or State’s Attorney was in 2014. In the primaries that year, barely more than 24% of eligible Democrats participated in the election, and even fewer Republicans cast a vote in their primary. The turnout in the General election was also very low. Let’s hope that isn’t the case again this year.
Today, in the wake of Democrat Valerie Ervin's decision to withdraw from the Maryland gubernatorial race and endorse primary candidate Rushern Baker for the job, we’ll look at how her move is changing the dynamics of the primary race and how it could impact the Democrats' fall challenge to Governor Larry Hogan, the popular Republican incumbent. And we'll look at some of the other big races across the region that will begin to be decided tomorrow.
Joining Tom is a roundtable of three seasoned political reporters:
Pamela Wood covers Baltimore County government and politics for the Baltimore Sun.
William Zorzi is a reporter for Maryland Matters, an online news site covering the Maryland political scene. He was also a Baltimore Sun reporter and editor for nearly 20 years.
And Ovetta Wiggins knows state politics very well, as well. She covers the State House for the Washington Post. She joins us on the line from Annapolis.
This conversation was live streamed on Facebook; video is available on WYPR's Facebook page.