Final Counts Put Wynn, Kramer Over Challengers

After almost two weeks of investigations, finger pointing and angst, vote counting in the much maligned Montgomery County primary came to an end yesterday with a quiet rustle of paper as the last of the provisional ballots was tallied and approved.

The result appeared to settle the final two races that had been left hanging: Rep. Albert R. Wynn's victory over challenger Donna Edwards in the 4th Congressional District and Benjamin F. Kramer's victory over Paul Griffin in the District 19 House of Delegates race. The county and state must certify the results this week before they are official.

"I have the impression that the fat lady has begun to warm her vocal cords if not actually singing," Kramer said yesterday afternoon as the final votes rolled in. "We're just pleased things worked out after all the work and waiting."

In the congressional race, Edwards received 15,851 votes in Montgomery -- 6,722 more than Wynn -- but was unable to overcome Wynn's lead in Prince George's County, losing the Democratic nomination by a total of 2,725 votes. Wynn would not comment, and Edwards could not be reached last night after the vote counting was completed.

Kramer received 5,119 votes -- a narrow margin of 307 votes -- to defeat Griffin and will advance to the general election to vie with two other Democrats and three Republicans for the district's three house seats. Griffin said last night he planned to call Kramer to concede.

The Montgomery Board of Elections isn't scheduled to certify local results until tomorrow, but several elections officials expressed relief while sorting through the final papers yesterday in their Rockville office. The Maryland State Board of Elections is scheduled to certify state and congressional results Tuesday.

The final count capped 11 whirlwind days that began with panic and confusion the morning of the Sept. 12 primary, when election workers realized they had forgotten to supply Montgomery's 238 precincts with plastic electronic cards needed for voting.

Voters cast 11,471 provisional ballots in large part because of the human error and additional technical glitches. Since Monday, county elections officials have been wading through them, inspecting each provisional ballot by hand and checking them against several records to make sure voters were eligible to vote and that that they hadn't already voted absentee.

Some ballots had to be examined by as many as five election workers and researched extensively. In some cases, judges made notations on provisional ballot envelopes that explain the reason why a provisional ballot was cast.

For example, one judge's notation said: "Database showed voter voted 9/23."

"I have no idea what that means," said Margaret Jurgensen, the county elections director. "We have to call the judge and find out what they mean by that."

Another said: "Machine went blank."