No winner announced yet in Prince George’s County Special Election; Early results favor Harrison

The Prince George’s County Board of Elections has yet to certify the results or declare a winner in Tuesday’s Democratic special primary election to fill the open District 5 seat on the county council.

The trend, however, favors Andrea Fletcher Harrison (D-Springdale), the deputy chief of staff for the District 5 council office, who leads Mayor Adam Ortiz (D-Edmonston) by 137 votes, 37.42% to 33.09%, with 25 of 28 precincts reporting.

According to Alisha Alexander, the county’s elections administrator, absentee ballots, provisional ballots, and overseas/military ballots have yet to be included in the official results. These ballots count as precincts, Alexander said, making up the remaining total.

Absentee ballots have been counted as of today, Alexander added, while provisional ballots will be counted Monday, and any overseas/military ballots will be counted next Friday, April 11, the day the board will certify the results.

Ballots counted today “did not change anything” as far as the results go, Alexander said.

Of those results officially reporting, Harrison leads with 1185 votes to 1048 for Ortiz. Theresa Dudley (D-Kentland) was a distant third, with 448 votes, or 14.15%, followed by Adrion Howell (D-Glenn Dale) with 405 votes, 12.79%. Three other candidates, Sherry James-Strother (D-Landover), Melvin Johnson (D-Landover), and Derrick Parks (D-Lanham), each registered under one percent of the vote.

Steven W. Johnson (R-Cheverly) ran unopposed in the Republican primary and received all 81 votes.