With thousands of mail-in ballots yet to be counted, the race for Anne Arundel Council Executive is too close to call.

Anne Arundel County Council Member Jessica Haire (R) leads incumbent County Executive Executive Steuart Pittman (D) in the race for Anne Arundel County Executive. According to unofficial early voting and election day results, Haire has 54 percent of the vote, while Pittman has 46 percent.

Update: The Anne Arundel County Board of Elections continues to canvass mail-in ballots. As of November 15, County Executive Pittman has 12,441 mail-in votes, and Council Member Haire has 4,636 mail-in votes. Haire (51 percent) maintains her lead over Pittman (49 percent), but thousands of mail-in votes are still outstanding.

Steuart Pittman, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, is seeking a second term as County Executive. Jessica Haire, who defeated former Delegate Herb McMillan and former Council Member John Grasso in a multi-way Republican primary race, is finishing her first term representing District 7 on the Anne Arundel County Council.

Despite a court ruling authorizing local boards of elections to process and tabulate mail-in ballots before the polls closed on election day — the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections opted not to canvass mail-in votes until later this week.

For context, nearly 60,000 Anne Arundel voters returned mail-in ballots. Among those ballots, 35,145 came from Democrats and 12,598 from Republicans. Note: these numbers will likely grow as mail-in ballots continue to arrive via ballot drop boxes and the US Postal Service.

MACo’s election coverage and analysis rely on unofficial results published by the State Board of Elections. Official results will follow after a full accounting of pending votes. MACo advises readers that any close unofficial results are subject to realignment in the days ahead.