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Tuesday's Special Election for Md 7th Congressional District, Largely Vote by Mail

Due to the COVID-19 health emergency, the Special General Election for the 7th Congressional District will be conducted principally by mail.  This means that all registered voters eligible to vote in this election will have a ballot mailed to them automatically at the address in their voter registration record.  

Ballots should arrive in mid-April.  Your ballot will come with a postage-prepaid return envelope, so you do not need to attach stamps to return your voted ballot.  But be sure to sign the oath on the back of the return envelope after you have placed your ballot inside the envelope and sealed it.          

Remember, your ballot must be postmarked on or before April 28, 2020.

Limited in-person voting will also be available on April 28, 2020, but this is intended for use by voters who are unable to return their mailed ballots or who never received their ballots.  Due to the risk posed by COVID-19, please do not use the in-person voting center if you are able to mark and return your ballot by mail or at a ballot drop-off location.  All in-persons must wear masks or face coverings in compliance under Governor Larry Hogan's April 15 executive order which requires the wearing of face coverings when inside any retail establishments or when riding any form of public transportation in Maryland. The order also requires all retail locations to require staff to wear face coverings and requires those businesses to put appropriate social distancing measures in place. 

The in-person voting center for Baltimore City voters in the 7th Congressional District is located at Edmondson High School, 501 N. Athol Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21229.  The in-person voting center will be open on April 28, 2020 only, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The other in- person voting sites are

1.         Martin’s West

           6817 Dogwood Road

           Windsor Mill, Maryland 21244

2.       The Howard County Fairgrounds

2210 Fairgrounds Road

West Friendship, Maryland 21794-9604

There will also be two ballot drop-off boxes for Baltimore City voters in the 7th Congressional District once the boxes are delivered.  One box will be located in the parking lot across Athol Avenue from Edmondson High School and the other box will be located outside the Baltimore City Board of Elections office at 417 E Fayette Street, Benton Office Building, Baltimore, MD 21202 .  The ballot drop-off boxes will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. once they are delivered.  Please check our website and the Maryland State Board of Elections website regularly for updates.

If you are not sure whether you are registered, or at what address, you can check your status using the Voter Lookup tool on the State Board of Elections website.  If you would like to register to vote, would like your ballot mailed to a different address than the one in your voter registration record, or would like a replacement ballot (because you never received your ballot or made a mistake in marking your ballot), you can submit a request using the Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request tool on the State Board of Elections ebsite .  You can also call 410-396-1444 or email to election.judge@baltimorecity.gov for more information.  Your request must be received by April 21, 2020, for ballots sent by mail to a different address, or by April 24, 2020, for ballots sent electronically.

Kweisi Mfume is the Democratic nominee. The 71-year-old held the seat from 1987 until 1996 when he left to lead the NAACP. During his victory speech, Mfume took no time in targeting his opponent without mentioning Republican challenger Kimberly Klacik by name. “Experience matters”, said Mfume. “You know, if you had to have heart surgery next week, and you could pick your own heart surgeon, I don’t think you’d pick someone right out of medical school. You’d rather go to somebody that done it over and over again successfully. I understand the Congress of the United States.”

Maryland's 7th congressional district of the United States House of Representatives encompasses just over half of Baltimore City, some sections of Baltimore County, and the majority of Howard County. The district was created following the census of 1950, which gave Maryland one additional representative in the House. It has been drawn as a majority African-American district since 1973. The seat is currently vacant, following the death of incumbent Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings in October 2019.

The 7th District has a rich history of African-American history. The late Parren J. Mitchell was the first African-American elected to Congress from Maryland. Mitchell served as the district's House Representative from January 3, 1971 to January 3, 1987. In 2007, Mitchell was hospitalized at Greater Baltimore Medical Center for a week, but succumbed to pneumonia on May 28 of that year. He was 85. Mitchell was succeeded by then, Baltimore City Council member Kweisi Mfume. Mfume served five terms representing the district, but stepped in 1996 to take over as president of the NAACP. Elijah Cummings had served in Maryland’s House of Delegates for 14 years before succeeding Mfume.

Cummings won a crowded seven-way Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district—with 37.5% of the vote. In the special election, he defeated Republican Kenneth Kondner with over 80 percent of the vote. He defeated Kondner again in November by a similar margin to win the seat in his own right. Cummings was reelected 11 more times in the contests which followed, never dropping below 69 percent of the vote. He ran unopposed in 2006.

Cummings died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in October 2019 from a rare form of cancer. He was 68. At the time of his death, he was chairman of the powerful Committee on Oversight and Reform ---the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives and was instrumental in investigations and hearings on alleged misconduct of the administration and businesses of President Donald Trump.

Maryland's 7th congressional district of the United States House of Representatives encompasses just over half of Baltimore City, some sections of Baltimore County, and the majority of Howard County. The district was created following the census of 1950, which gave Maryland one additional representative in the House. It has been drawn as a majority-African American district since 1973. The seat is currently vacant, following the death of incumbent Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings in October 2019.