Lovable App

What Does Winning Look Like?

This data dashboard examines how candidates won primary contests across Maryland. We gathered data on all 2026 primary contests and their preliminary outcomes. For single-winner contests, we identified which winners prevailed with a plurality (under 50% of the vote) rather than a majority. For multi-seat contests, we analyzed whether winners reached a specific vote share threshold for the seats being elected (e.g., the Droop threshold of 1 / (seats + 1) of votes cast).

Maryland Has a Plurality Problem: Plurality outcomes indicate that majority of voters may preferred another candidate than the person with the most votes. Voters can feel unrepresented in the outcome or fear vote splitting benefited another candidate. For multi-seat (e.g at-large) contests, it is all about fair representation. Under our current system, a candidate can win a seat with a very low percentage of the vote. This gives a small but cohesive voting bloc the power to elect all their preferred candidates, silencing the voice of other voting blocs.

The Solution: Ranked Choice Voting eliminates non-majority winners, spoilers, and ensures fair representation. Learn more at rcvmd.org.

Updated — · auto-refreshes every 12h

Counties

CONTESTS

0 single-seat · 0 multi-seat

UNCONTESTED SINGLE SEAT CONTESTS

races with only one candidate

UNCONTESTED MULTI-SEAT CONTESTS

multi-seat races with candidates ≤ seats

SINGLE-SEAT MAJORITY WINNERS

candidates with 50% or more of the vote

SINGLE-SEAT PLURALITY WINNERS

candidates with under 50% of the vote

MULTI-SEAT WINNERS

candidates reached threshold of 1/(seats+1)

MULTI-SEAT WINNERS BELOW THRESHOLD

candidates seated but have less than the threshold

2,039

TOTAL CANDIDATES

860 running for a single-seat · 1,210 running at-large (multi-seat)