St. Mary's goes with McCain

Hoyer holds local voters

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Barack Obama supporters Ellen Scott of California, second from left, Nancy Briggs, left, of California, Grenda Dennis of Lexington Park and Wanda Bromell of Hollywood cheer during a rally at the Doo-Dah Deli in Leonardtown as their candidate wins Ohio. John McCain carried the vote in St. Mary's County but Obama won easily in Maryland on his way to his election as president of the United States. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) garnered 22,531 votes to Sen. Barack Obama's 17,056 Tuesday in St. Mary's in unofficial vote totals, but Obama easily carried Maryland on the way to his election as president of the United States.

The last Democratic presidential candidate who won the popular vote in St. Mary's was Jimmy Carter in 1976, even though the county has had more registered Democrats than Republicans during all of the intervening years.

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) held onto his seat for his 14th term thanks in part to St. Mary's County's 24,065 votes, according to unofficial election totals. His challenger, Charles County school board member Collins Bailey, finished with 14,015 votes from St. Mary's County.

Nearly 63 percent of St. Mary's County voters backed the reintroduction of slot machines to Maryland. Voters in the rest of the state agreed. When the last slot machines were removed from Southern Maryland in 1968, they left behind hard feelings and pockets of poverty. Now, 40 years later, updated, electronic versions of those machines have been approved for five spots in the state – none of them in Southern Maryland.

Voters in St. Mary's also backed, by more than a 2-to-1 margin, the first question on Tuesday's ballot, which will amend the state's constitution to allow two weeks of early voting, permit voters to cast ballots outside of their home districts and ease rules on absentee ballots.

jyeatman@somdnews.com