Republican Haven Shoemaker declared victory Wednesday morning in the race for Carroll County state’s attorney: “It’s over,” Shoemaker said.
With early voting returns counted and all 50 county precincts reporting unofficial Election Day results, Shoemaker held a large lead over Republican opponent David Ellin.
Shoemaker has received 9,682 votes so far (58.03%) to Ellin’s 7,003 (41.97%), according to unofficial results.
There are no Democrats in the race, so the winner of the Republican primary will become the county’s next state’s attorney.
“I am obviously disappointed in the results to date,” Ellin stated in an email Wednesday. “It certainly doesn’t look promising, even with the amount of outstanding ballots.
“With that being said, I am proud of the work that my team and I did. We worked as hard as we possibly could and gave it our all,” he stated. As of Wednesday afternoon, Ellin had not conceded.
Shoemaker, a Maryland state delegate and former Carroll County commissioner, said he felt blessed by the results so far.
“I’ve got to tell you that I feel really blessed to have the support of Carroll County,” he said.
Shoemaker feels confident the mail-in ballots, which have yet to be counted, will not change the outcome of the election.
Carroll County Breaking News
As of Tuesday afternoon, the county had received about 7,900 mail-in ballots of the 14,009 sent to voters who requested them, according to Carroll County Elections Director Katherine Berry. Mail-in votes will be counted starting at 10 a.m., Thursday. Of those ballots, about 3,000 are Republican.
“With only 3,000 Republican ballots to count, I already anticipate [a win],” Shoemaker said.
However, Berry said mail-in ballots are still coming in. As of Wednesday morning, another 1,000 mail-in ballots were delivered to the board of elections, she said.
Shoemaker said Carroll County voters believe he is the right candidate to “keep the bad guys off the streets,” and added that county voters rejected Ellin’s “nasty smear tactics.” Ellin is a medical malpractice attorney in private practice.
At the end of last year, Ellin filed a complaint with the Maryland Ethics Commission against Shoemaker after the delegate introduced legislation that would prohibit the county state’s attorney from maintaining a private practice.
The bill passed the Maryland General Assembly in April. Ellin said the bill was an attempt by Shoemaker to discourage him from running.
The legislative ethics committee dismissed the complaint.