Tuesday marks one full week since Election Day, and an official winner has not been declared in the race for Maryland's First District congressional seat. But Democrat Frank Kratovil has what appears to be an insurmountable lead over Republican Andy Harris.
Harris is a Republican state senator from Cockeysville; Kratovil is the Democratic state's attorney from Queen Anne's County.
On Monday, election boards in all of the First District counties counted their provisional ballots. Right now, Kratovil leads Harris by 2,154 votes.
That's an increase of 151 votes from Friday, when Kratovil led by 2,003 votes, and a big increase from election night when he led by 915 votes.
A major factor working against Harris has been the geography of the First District. Harris got more votes in Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties -- which together, produced 158,939 votes in the First District. Kratovil won every single Eastern Shore county -- all of which are less populated than their counterparts to the west. But together, the Eastern Shore counties produced more than 193,211 votes.
As the head prosecutor in Queen Anne's County, Kratovil succeeded in more closely identifying himself with people who live on the Eastern Shore. ‘I think they definitely want representation and they think of themselves as different and having unique issues, different issues from the western shore,’ said Jessica Gerrity, an assistant professor of political science at Washington College, which is in Kent County.
That was not the only factor working against Harris. If you don't live in the First District, you may never have heard of Richard James Davis. He is a Libertarian who ran as a third-party candidate. Right now, Kratovil leads by 2,154 votes. Davis has gotten 8,632, and analysts say most of them would have been votes for Harris if Davis had not been in the race.
On Friday, the Associated Press called the race for Frank Kratovil. The counting of absentee ballots is still going on, but both campaigns are in the process of planning news conferences for Tuesday.
