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Politicians Ramp Up Last Minute Efforts Before Primary

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland candidates are counting down the last days of the 2014 primary campaign.

Political reporter Pat Warren has the latest from the polls on early voting.

One of the biggest concerns remains voter awareness of a primary that's months earlier than what we're used to.

Lexington Market is a traditional campaign ground in Baltimore. The Brown campaign strolled through with Senator Barbara Mikulski, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and State Senator Catherine Pugh.

"We're seeing an increase in the numbers in early voting; that's a good thing," Brown said.

A record 20,000 cast ballots the first day of early voting last week. As of Sunday, 39,000 Democrats and close to 13,000 Republicans had voted. That's slightly less than two percent of eligible Democrats and just over one percent of eligible Republicans.

"We're doing a new thing in Maryland, a June primary. A lot of people don't know about it so we want to talk about it and encourage early voting and voting on June 24," said Senator Barbara Mikulski.

The market saw back-to-back visits from gubernatorial candidates Anthony Brown and Delegate Heather Mizeur with her running mate Delman Coates.

"I like what she's demonstrating as far as helping the people out. It's not a color thing, it's a help thing," said Burnell Jones.

It's especially important for candidates to be out and about to convince undecideds like Donetta Mitchell.

"Not quite but I'm close," Mitchell said.

Doug Gansler made his presence known in Chevy Chase Monday.

The polls are open for early voting from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Thursday. Tuesday is the deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail.

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