More than 16 percent of registered Howard County voters cast a ballot before the General Election during early voting, according to the State Board of Elections, but with three open spots on the Board of Education, this contest starts out Tuesday morning wide open. 

The primaries saw low voter turnout – even lower than the traditionally meager primary turnout. In Howard County just about 19 percent of registered voters went to the polls to vote in the primaries, that’s versus 43.9 percent in the 2008 primary election. 

Close results in the BOE primary (two of the candidates were within tenth of a percentage point during the primaries) mean it’s anyone’s guess which three candidates come out victorious … and the vote count may take a while to come in, though Howard County Board of Elections Director Guy Mickley said he hopes to have local election results in by midnight.

Howard County voters can choose three of the six BOE candidates who made it through the primary election (in alphabetical order):

Updated Nov. 8, 1:00 a.m. with 111 of 111 precincts reporting.

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