Baltimore wraps up counting votes on the final day of canvassing

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — As the final votes of the 2026 general election are being counted in Baltimore County, a tight council race in the Dundalk area has District 9 coming down to the wire.

Democratic nominee Arkia Wade is watching as votes continue to be counted in her closely contested race.

"Last night was a great night for me, to be up 92 votes, and so I feel really positive with what's left to count," Wade said.

Wade was trailing after Election Day, but mail-in ballots have swung the race in her favor. She has been at the Board of Elections in Owings Mills each day to watch the process unfold.

"I had a tough primary. If people remember, I won by 41 votes, so I've been through this experience before of, you know, waiting for ballots to be counted, so this was sort of like deja vu for me for the general election," Wade said.

Board of Elections workers have been putting in extra hours to finalize the count. Baltimore County Elections Director Ruie LaVoie said workers are completing the final stages of the canvass.

"Today we're doing the final mail-in ballot canvass that includes any timely ballots that were postmarked by Nov. 3 that we've received in the office, and we're also completing the provisional canvass, which is a total of about a little over 4,100 ballots that we're canvassing. Once that is complete, then I'll be able to certify the results," LaVoie said.

LaVoie said the length of this year's ballot has significantly slowed the counting process.

"The biggest challenge I've had is we have that four-page ballot. So normally we can canvass 10,000 or 15,000 a day," LaVoie said. "And we just haven't been able to do that because for every ballot it's 4 pages that has to go through the scanner, so it's a lot more time-consuming than a smaller ballot would be. That's been our biggest challenge."

Wade's opponent, Tim Fazenbaker, declined an interview on the race.

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