Maryland Certifies 2020 Election Results Showing Joe Biden Won State
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ/AP) -- The Maryland Board of State Canvassers officially certified the state's 2020 general election results Friday, just over one month after the election.
The board approved a declaration of results during a meeting held remotely Friday afternoon because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Results show 65.4% of votes, or close to 2 million, were cast for Biden in the heavily Democratic state. President Donald Trump received 32.2% of votes.
The Libertarian ticket of Jo Jorgenson and Jeremy Spike Cohen got 33,488 votes, just over 1%, while Green party candidate Howie Hawkins got 15,799. Rapper Kanye West, meanwhile, got 1,117 votes.
Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1 in Maryland. In 2016, Trump received 34% of the vote in the state. A Republican presidential candidate hasn't won Maryland in 32 years. George H.W. Bush was the last to do so in 1988.
Board Secretary Linda Lamone said 74% of registered voters cast ballots, half of them did so by mail. Of those who voted by mail, two-thirds returned their ballots using drop-off boxes.
All eight of Maryland's U.S. House incumbents won reelection.
All states must certify elections before the Electoral College meets Dec. 14. Any challenge to the results must be resolved by Tuesday.
Now that the results have been certified, the state's electors for the Electoral College will meet at the State House in Annapolis on Dec. 14, the state's elections board said. That group will then cast the state's electoral votes for the presidential and vice presidential races, which will be counted along with other states during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
"Despite the public health emergency gripping the nation, millions of voters from across the state were able to exercise their right to vote in the 2020 general election," Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Linda Lamone said in a news release. "Election workers and officials from each of Maryland's 24 jurisdictions worked tirelessly and in good faith to oversee a free and fair election in which every eligible ballot was counted. An independent audit of the election count demonstrated Maryland's results were extremely accurate and uncovered no sign of irregularities. Given the many daunting challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, these findings are a tribute to the thousands of Marylanders who devoted their time and effort to managing a safe, secure and precise election process."
Baltimore City certified its election results on November 18.
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