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Maryland’s 6th District race heats up as mail-in ballots roll in
Maryland’s 6th Congressional District race remained too close to call, as the Montgomery County Board of Elections began its canvass of mail-in ballots. FOX 5's Lili Zheng has the latest details.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - Maryland’s 6th Congressional District race remained too close to call, as the Montgomery County Board of Elections began its canvass of mail-in ballots.
The canvass consisted of bipartisan teams at Montgomery College’s Germantown campus on Thursday morning. Several tables of workers processing the ballots filled a room at the Bioscience Education Center.
"Sometimes they’re going to be one Independent and one Republican, one Independent and one Democrat, but they’re all two different party affiliations," Montgomery County Board of Elections president David Naimon said. "Every single vote is counted. Every single eligible vote is counted. We do that regardless of whether the media calls an election."
READ MORE: MD 6th Congressional District live results: Parrott vs McClain Delaney
Montgomery County Board of Elections secretary Amie Hoeber said the board has received about 135,000 mail-in ballots, but Hoeber said it was possible more could arrive on Thursday from voters who dropped their ballots off at the post office on Election Day. More will trickle in between now and ten days post-election, Hoeber said.
"Every election is a little different. This one, of course, was a highly contested election for a number of offices. So, it’s very important we do this well, and we are doing this well," she told FOX 5.
Delaney, Parrott race for Maryland’s 6th District too close to call Wednesday
Democrat April McClain Delaney and conservative Republican Neil Parrott remain in a close contest Wednesday in Maryland’s most competitive U.S. House race.
The most recent election results in the hard-fought race between Democratic nominee April McClain Delaney and Republican nominee Neil Parrott show McClain Delaney leading Parrot by 358 points. Both are vying for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, which could help determine which party controls the U.S. House.
The U.S. House is the last chance at majority power for Democrats after President-elect Donald Trump secured his second term for the White House early Wednesday morning, while Republicans gained a majority in the Senate.
It takes 218 seats to rule the House, though neither political party has reached the threshold yet, as several races across the country remain too close to call.
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Maryland 6th District race still too close to call
The Maryland 6th Congressional District is still too close to call. Over 320,000 votes have been counted and the margin between Democrat April McClain Delaney and Republican Neil Parrott is just 300 votes. FOX 5’s David Kaplan is staying ahead of this one for us tonight—he’s live in Germantown.
Professor Michele Swers with Georgetown University’s Department of Government said unified control of government matters for any political party, but the margin is equally important. Even if the Republican Party gains majority control of the House as well, Professor Swers said there could still be challenges such as the budget.
"Donald Trump has different priorities than some members of Congress. When they have to decide what programs are getting funded, and which are getting cut…and if they want to do more cost-cutting. Donald Trump doesn’t tend to worry about the size of the deficit. Some Republicans do worry," Swers said. "They do have an incentive to go along with Donald Trump to try and pass things, so the party looks like it can govern, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be disagreement within the party. It’s harder for them to get votes from Democrats because there’s so much polarization between Republicans and Democrats. Then, when you lose votes on your side, it doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to pick up votes on the opposite party."
Majority rule in the U.S. House will likely not be called this week due to multiple competitive races in western states such as California, where there are a lot of votes left to count.