The last undecided Anne Arundel County Council race flipped yet again Tuesday, with Democrat Spencer Jones taking a 48-vote lead over Republican Dawn Pulliam in District 7 — a stretch of Crofton, Edgewater, Deale, and the rest of southern Anne Arundel County that has become one of the closest contests in the 2026 general election in Anne Arundel County.
A Seesaw Race Keeps Swinging
According to Eye On Annapolis, Jones had been trailing Pulliam by just 14 votes as of Monday before picking up a 62-vote swing that flipped the race back in his favor. The outlet reports the contest remains too close to call while additional ballots are still being tallied, and that results stay unofficial until the count is completed and certified.
The margin has been shrinking for days. The Capital Gazette reported that Jones trailed by 1,379 votes earlier in the week before that deficit shrank to 784 by this past weekend, and then narrowed further to just 14 votes by Nov. 7, per the same outlet's reporting.
Mail Ballots Reshaped the Math
Much of that movement came from mail-in ballots. The Baltimore Sun reported that Jones had collected 5,706 mail-in votes to Pulliam's 2,328 as of Nov. 7, after election judges conducted their second mail-in ballot canvass at the county elections office in Glen Burnie that Saturday. At the time, the Sun described District 7 — which covers Crofton and South County — as the last outstanding race for the council.
A county elections deputy director told the Sun that judges would continue canvassing Tuesday and Thursday for provisional ballots, with a goal of certifying the election by Nov. 16. Eye On Annapolis separately reports that provisional ballots are scheduled to be counted Friday, November 13 — meaning more movement in the tally is still possible before any final determination. The outlet also notes the race may still result in a recount.
What's at Stake for the Council
The seven-member Anne Arundel County Council's partisan balance hangs partly on how District 7 shakes out. Eye On Annapolis reports that Democrats have already secured five of the seven council seats, after Natalie Ogilvie defeated Republican incumbent Amanda Fiedler in District 5. If Jones holds his current lead in District 7, Democrats would control six of the seven seats on the council, according to the outlet.
That framing tracks with earlier reporting on the District 5 race. The Capital Gazette reported that Ogilvie had narrowed her own deficit against Fiedler from 725 votes to 32 after the first day of mail-ballot counting, before later pulling ahead by 707 votes. The Sun had similarly framed the council's makeup as hinging on District 7, reporting that Democrats would hold a 5-2 majority if other results held, or a 6-1 majority if Jones overtook Pulliam.
Recount Rules Still Loom
Should the District 7 margin stay tight enough to trigger a recount, Maryland election law lays out who would oversee the bond required to request one. The Maryland State Board of Elections says that for a recount confined to a single county, a judge of that county's circuit court sets the bond; if the recount spans more than one county, a judge of the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court handles it instead.
For now, the District 7 outcome remains unresolved. Jones's 48-vote edge is the latest swing in a race that has changed hands multiple times as ballots continue to be counted, and no final certified result has been reported.
