Atterbeary Leads In County Exec Race: Howard Co. Primary Election Results 2026

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — While no contests were officially called by 11 p.m. Tuesday in Howard County, several candidates led their races.

With 67 of 67 precincts reporting, Vanessa Atterbeary captured 82,768 votes, or 80.6%, for county executive, while her opponent, Nater Kane, received 17,796 votes, or 17.3%.

Subscribe

County sheriff candidate Marcus Harris received 90,796 votes, or 97.8%, while write-in candidates received 2,053 votes, or 2.2%.

Mark E. Covington earned 59,447 votes, or 36.5%, for two available seats on the Howard County Board of Education. Lanlan Xu snagged 58,810 votes, or 36.2%.

Voters also considered two measures on the ballot.

Question 3, Maryland's redistricting ballot question, was a key amendment that Republican lawmakers repeatedly challenged. The state Supreme Court reviewed the contested measure before it was cleared as a last-minute addition to the ballot.

With 1,051 of 1,979 precincts reporting, 784,426 votes were in favor of Question 3, while 539,445 were against the redistricting amendment, according to figures released by the state elections board.

At 9:33 p.m., the Associated Press called the race, projecting the measure clearing with 848,362 votes.

Local boards must certify election results by Nov. 13. Statewide results are to be certified by Dec. 9.

Results for all races are available on the Maryland Department of Elections website.

Preliminary vote tallies are below. Check back throughout the night for the latest results as they come in. The charts will refresh every two minutes.