Challenger Bates leads Mosby in Baltimore City state's attorney race

BALTIMORE -- Challenger Ivan Bates on Wednesday carried a 4,100-vote lead over incumbent Marilyn Mosby in the race for Baltimore City State's Attorney.

"We talked to the voters. The voters, we feel, want change," Bates told WJZ at his watch party Tuesday night.

With all 296 precincts reporting, Bates, a prominent defense attorney and former city prosecutor, has 41% of the vote after early voting and with 96% of election day precincts reporting. Mosby is next (32%) and former prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah is in third (27%).

"I'm going to fight the same way I fought to get into this position until every single vote is counted," Mosby told supporters Tuesday night. "It'll be a while before we know who won this race. But what we do know is the race is not over, correct?"

On Wednesday about 8:40 p.m., the Maryland State Board of Elections posted the city's full tally after a dozen misplaced thumb drives caused a delay earlier in the day.

Bates maintained his lead after the addition of the 12 precincts.

There are at least 20,000 mail-in votes to be counted in Baltimore City's Democratic primary. They cannot be opened until Thursday.

University of Baltimore political scientist Roger Hartley told WJZ he was surprised by the early returns, saying Mosby has an uphill climb ahead of her in the mail-in ballot count.

"It's going to take her having a very good ground game and being able to capture those mail-in ballots, which are really the types of ballots that you get by calling people over and over again and asking them to return it," Hartley said.

Vignarajah touted the support of several former city police commissioners and outgoing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.