Voters are awaiting the Annapolis primary election results. Here’s when we’ll know who won the primaries for mayor & city council aldermen.
Last updated Tuesday at 8:10 p.m.
ANNAPOLIS, MD — Annapolitans braved the rain Tuesday to vote in the Democratic primary election, casting their ballots for mayor and city council aldermen.
A short-lived gas leak briefly disrupted one polling place. Nobody was hurt, and everybody was still able to vote
Patch interviewed voters downtown at City Hall in Ward 1. Their main concerns are protecting the waterfront, preserving the city’s historic charm and capping rapidly rising property taxes.
“They want to put a hotel down there and ruin the view, along with a 90-slip marina,” voter Paul Clar said, pointing to a restaurateur aspiring to build an inn downtown and a quickly nixed marina proposal at City Dock. “I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the city council that’s been here because I’ve lived here 15 years and City Dock’s still flooding.”
The city is guaranteed a new mayor and at least four new aldermen. Four aldermen are running for another term.
“The mayor vote [is] important because it seems like we need to go in a different direction,” Bruce Bukowski said without saying who he supported. “The tax rate where I live has really gone up dramatically. It just seems pretty high in a short period of time.”
Gas Leak At Polls
The gas leak happened around 8:30 a.m. inside the Ward 3 polling location at the Mt. Olive Community Life Center. It stemmed from a pilot light going out on a stove.
Three voters were sent to City Hall to cast their ballots, which they did successfully. No other voters were impacted, officials said.
The Annapolis Fire Department evaluated three election judges, who declined treatment and transportation to the hospital. The judges all opted to stay and finish their shifts.
The polling site reopened after it was ventilated, which took about 10 to 15 minutes. Firefighters stayed on site until voting resumed.
Election Tally Will Take Time
Polls closed at 8 p.m. Election officials are in the process of securing the voting machines and driving them to City Hall. Once there, the machines will be unlocked, and the tallies will be printed.
Only in-person voting totals will be released Tuesday night, meaning residents won’t know the official winners on Election Day. The city will release the preliminary in-person tallies shortly in a press release. Patch will update this article with those numbers as soon as they’re available.
Mail-in and drop box ballots will be counted during a Sept. 23 canvass. Election officials expect that to take one to two days. Once complete, the city will release the certified winners in late September.
Voters Share Priorities
Candidates have debated how they would handle the planned City Dock Park, intended to protect downtown businesses from flooding. The project has come under fire for its cost and the scale of its proposed Maritime Welcome Center. Preserving the height ordinances downtown is another concern.
Mayoral and aldermanic hopefuls have also outlined plans to address vacation rental properties, affordable housing and public safety.
Clar’s wife, Felicia Barlow Clar, was frustrated that the City Council “rushed in” controversial legislation right before the election. She highlighted the proposals to limit short-term rentals, loosen regulations on accessory dwelling units and extend the Market House lease eight years before the current contract expires.
“I feel like I have a history here,” Barlow Clar said, noting that her grandfather used to be the police chief. “I see a lot of that community history being destroyed. And I get that tourism is important, but I do think the tourists come here because of that community feeling we had, and we are losing it very quickly.”
Clar and Barlow Clar both declined to say who they voted for because it’s a small town where everybody knows everybody.
Democrat Harry Huntley hopes to retain his Ward 1 seat. He was appointed to the office when former Alderwoman Elly Tierney (D) retired in September 2024. This is the first time he is running for election, and he faces a crowded field of five other candidates.
Republican and independent voters did not need to vote in the primary, as there were no races with multiple GOP or unaffiliated candidates. With no competition in these races, all Republican and independent candidates automatically “won” their uncontested primaries and advanced to the general election.
Related:
Annapolis Mayoral Debate Reveals Different Plans For City Dock, Downtown Construction
Ward 1 Candidates Outline Plans To Slow Short-Term Rentals In Annapolis
All Democratic voters were encouraged to vote in the primary because the mayor’s race was contested. Democrats chose between Jared Littmann and Rhonda Pindell Charles.
Littmann is a lawyer and an engineer who owns K&B Ace Hardware with his wife. He was also the Ward 5 alderman from 2013 to 2017. Littmann, the first candidate to enter the race, bills himself as a savvy businessman with a passion for environmentalism.
Pindell Charles, an attorney and the current Ward 3 alderwoman, says her 12 years on the city council display her experience. With multigenerational roots in Annapolis, she thinks she would offer a seamless transition after term-bound Mayor Gavin Buckley (D) leaves office this winter. Pindell Charles’ mayoral bid also leaves a wide-open race for her city council seat.
The winner will face Republican Bobby O’Shea, a business consultant in the defense and medical industries, in November. O’Shea paints himself as an outspoken critic of the status quo. He aspires to protect historic charm and cut wasteful spending.
Martha Chalmers is “quite influenced by Littmann’s running of his hardware store.”
“I practically live there,” Chalmers said, adding that she voted for Littmann for mayor. “It’s rational there. He put a lot of thought in it. Things happen smoothly, so that encourages me … I’m assuming he would carry some of that forward into how he looks at other larger issues.”
Chalmers voted for Huntley for Ward 1 alderman.
“He’s come by my house twice. I belong to a coffee group, and they’re all very much behind him,” Chalmers said.
Democratic candidates in Wards 1, 3, 4 and 6 had contested aldermanic primaries.
Democratic aldermanic candidates in Wards 2, 5, 7 and 8 advanced directly to the general election because they did not have an intraparty challenger. Residents in these wards were still encouraged to vote because of the contested race for mayor.
Meet The Candidates
Click any candidate’s name to learn more. We linked to their candidate questionnaire if they completed Patch’s survey. If not, we linked to their website.
Voters can check which ward they live in by using this map. Redistricting has changed ward boundaries, so voters should check their ward before heading to the polls.
Mayor
Democrat
Rhonda Pindell Charles
Jared Littmann
Republican
Robert Alan O’Shea: Automatically Advances
Ward 1
Democrat
Ben Bramsen
Ron Gunzburger
Harry Huntley (Incumbent)
Kathleen McDermott
Genevieve Torri
Unaffiliated
Thomas Krieck: Automatically Advances
Ward 2
Democrat
Karma O’Neill (Incumbent): Automatically Advances
Republican
Kenneth G Vincent: Automatically Advances
Ward 3
Democrat
Deborah J Odum
Keanuú Smith-Brown
Unaffiliated
Michael Dye: Automatically Advances
Ward 4
Democrat
Janice Elaine Allsup-Johnson
Coren Makell
Ward 5
Democrat
Brooks Schandelmeier (Incumbent): Automatically Advances
Republican
Jack P. Papaleonti: Automatically Advances
Ward 6
Democrat
Diesha Contee
Craig Cussimanio
Republican