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Board of Elections says primary certified; county readies for Nov. 3 with expanded staffing and public access to canvass
Summary
Montgomery County Board of Elections President David Naiman and substitute member Larry Halloran described certified primary results, turnout patterns and preparations for the Nov. 3 general election, including a publicly streamed ballot canvas beginning Oct. 13 and a call to recruit about 4,000 election judges.
David Naiman, president of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said the county’s June 23 primary results have been certified and sketched how officials will prepare for the Nov. 3 general election. "Turnout in the primary election was about 161,000 voters in total," Naiman said, adding that the county’s overall primary turnout was roughly 23 percent.
Naiman gave a breakdown of how people voted: about 18 percent of ballots arrived during early voting, 37 percent were cast on election day, about 3 percent were provisional, and roughly 40 percent were regular mail‑in ballots. He also described a subset of returned "original" mail ballots—roughly 3,700—that were identified when a voter sent a replacement ballot but also returned the original, and he explained how the ballot-canvas process accounts for those cases.
Larry Halloran, the Republican substitute member of the board and a longtime early‑voting center manager, described options for voters and the staffing the county expects to need: "Voters in the 2026 general election can vote in all the same ways...They can vote by mail and return that ballot by mail or in one of the county's 58 drop boxes," he said, and urged residents to serve as election judges. Halloran asked residents to text the word SERVE and an email address to 77788 to get information on serving as an election judge, and said the county is preparing for extra capacity for every voting method as turnout patterns for November remain uncertain.
Naiman also said the county will begin its ballot-canvas work on Oct. 13 and expects to meet roughly twice a week leading up to election day, with more frequent meetings after ballots are canvassed. "We are the only local board in Maryland to stream our canvas sessions online," he said, and described procedures that use 50 bipartisan teams to open envelopes and scan ballots with checks on each other and board members voting individually on voters' intent where questions arise.
The county provided contact information for voter questions and resources: 777vote.org, elections@MontgomeryCountyMD.gov and (240) 777‑8500.
