Early voting jumps in Montgomery County

Election Day is Tuesday, but more than 13% of Montgomery County’s registered voters — about 93,000 people — have already cast ballots in early voting, according to the state board of elections.

That proportion beats the 8% who voted early in 2022, the last midterms.

“We’re thrilled that so many people took advantage of early voting,” said county elections board President David Naimon, noting the roughly 5-point increase from 2022.

“We won’t know until we finish counting mail-in ballots and Election Day votes how much of the increase represents those who voted by other means in past elections or additional turnout,” he added.

Early voting opened on Oct. 22 and ended Thursday in Maryland. The county is on par with the 14% statewide who voted early in this general election.

Voters may also vote by mail. About 72,000 registered Montgomery County voters have returned their mail-in ballots, and tens of thousands of ballots have been mailed to voters but have not yet been returned, Naimon said.

Those ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted. At this point, Naimon said, it’s best to take mail-in ballots to the post office.

Many of the most competitive races in heavily Democratic Montgomery County happened in the primary. For county executive, for example, Will Jawando bested two other Democratic council members for the party’s nomination. Jawando faces Republican Esther Wells in the general election.

A nonpartisan race to be decided on Tuesday, however, is drawing considerable attention. Republican-backed candidate Brenda Diaz faces Montgomery County College trustee Omar Lazo.

More than 700,000 people are registered to vote in Montgomery County, according to the state elections board: 58% are Democrats, 14% are Republicans, 27% are unaffiliated and fewer than 2% belong to other parties.

While early voters may choose from polling places throughout the county, Naimon encourages Election Day voters to go to their local precincts. Find your polling place here or by texting “FIND” to 77788.

Voters may cast provisional ballots at precincts other than their own, but that will delay the counting of their vote, he said.

In the past 25 years, an increasing number of states have adopted early voting to boost turnout and shorten lines at polling stations.

In 2026, 97% of all voting-age citizens live in states that offer at least one option to vote before Election Day, according to The Center for Election Innovation & Research.