Maryland District 6 Congressional race sees razor-thin margins, may come down to mail-in ballots

GERMANTOWN, Md. — Local boards of elections in Maryland will resume the canvassing of mail-in ballots on Thursday, November 7. According to the Maryland State Board of Elections, Maryland voters requested more than 881,000 mail-in ballots in the general election. There are still 309,000 mail-in ballots that need to be canvassed. Mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day will be canvassed if received prior to the local board certification of the results.

One key race still to be decided is Maryland's 6th Congressional district between democrat April Delaney and republican Neil Parrot. As of Thursday morning, Delaney has a slight lead over Parrot with 315 votes. The sixth district includes Allegany, Garret, and Washington counties, as well as parts of Frederick and Montgomery counties.

David Trone currently holds this office. He gave up the seat to run for US Senate, but lost his party’s nomination to Angela Alsobrooks. This race is important because if Republicans flip this seat, they will be one step closer to taking control of the U.S. House.

April Delaney was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce under President Biden. She helped lead the rollout of the $65-billion program to connect all Americans to the internet. Parrot is a Transportation engineer and former Maryland state delegate, who served 12 years in Maryland’s General Assembly. He ran twice before as the GOP nominee for the 6th congressional district in 2020 and 2022, but lost to David Trone. District six is diverse – it covers a lot rural western Maryland but also includes the affluent liberal suburbs of DC.

The canvasses are open to the public. Observers will be asked to sign in and follow certain rules. Local boards post on their websites the dates, times and locations of their canvasses. For more information about a local board’s canvassing timeline, please contact the local board. To learn more about the vote canvassing process in Maryland, visit the Maryland State Board of Elections (SBE) canvassing webpage.

The local boards will release results each day they count ballots after election day. SBE posts the results on its website as they are received.