On the first day of early voting, it can be a near carnival atmosphere with bull horns and signs and swarming campaign workers.
Voters having to fight through the lines of candidates and all their flyers.
"I have my ballot marked,” voter Gene Miller said, “These pamphlets don't mean one thing."
Miller already made up his mind.
For him it's about someone who can beat Governor Larry Hogan in the fall, for others in this city, it is the growing tight and combative race for Baltimore State's Attorney.
"I mean I am hopeful that my race is part of the reason people are coming out,” said current State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, “It is a very important election. It's about transforming our communities. We started to transform the criminal justice center in the city of Baltimore and we still have so much more work to do. "
Mosby was shaking hands and handing out flyers pushing her message outside several of the early voting locations today.
But so were her challengers.
Ivan Bates, fresh off his endorsement from the Baltimore Sun was also out today pushing his main message, asking voters if after three years of record violence, do they feel any safer.
"We did a recent poll and that poll had us neck and neck with a number of undecided. With the Sun endorsement, this race is really going down to the wire. We are excited about that. A lot of supporters say they just want change," Bates said.
Change is what Baltimore State’s Attorney candidate Thiru Vignarajah is promising too.
He was staging at the Edmonson Village location today making his last push, trying to take advantage of what seems like a pretty good turn out on day one.
"Baltimore is in a moment of crisis and we need a proven prosecutor,” Vignarajah said, “I think people are focusing on the race, they are focusing on our records and we're learning a lot about the weaknesses of the other candidates."
You can early vote in eight locations across the city from today until June 21st.
The election day for this primary is Tuesday, June 26th.
