Howard County Executive Race Final Push — 2026-06-10

Wednesday morning: isolated showers and thunderstorms, high near 87 degrees. Southwest wind 7 to 10 mph.

Howard County executive candidates are making their final push ahead of election day. Wednesday, June 10th. Five Centennial High School 10th graders just earned national recognition in C-SPAN's 2026 StudentCam competition. Rachel Hess of Elkridge Landing Middle School is the state's Outstanding Middle School Math Teacher of the Year. And residents are upset after a gas station was approved on a cemetery site. Showers and thunderstorms today. Here's the brief.

Howard County executive candidates are making their final push to voters ahead of election day, according to CBS News reporting from Tuesday. The race features a Howard County state lawmaker and a businessman aiming for the top office, per separate CBS News coverage. The 2026 Howard County primary election Voter's Guide is published by WBAL-TV with the candidate field and ballot information. Names of the leading candidates and their platforms are detailed in the CBS and WBAL-TV reports. The race is the most consequential local political contest of the week. Howard County voters head to the polls for the primary election in the days ahead. The CBS News report covers final-push campaign events and candidate appearances. The WBAL-TV Voter's Guide includes candidate profiles, ballot information, and down-ballot races. Both stories are linked in the description. Howard County residents who plan to vote should review the Voter's Guide before primary election day. Outgoing County Executive Calvin Ball has been making appearances at ribbon-cuttings and policy launches in the closing weeks of his tenure, with the next Executive set to inherit a stack of capital projects already in motion. Specific election-day details, including polling locations and hours, are on the Howard County Board of Elections website. We will follow up with results coverage as votes are reported.

Five 10th graders from Centennial High School's Humanities program earned national recognition in C-SPAN's 22nd annual StudentCam documentary competition, according to HCPSS. The recognition was announced by HCPSS on June 9. C-SPAN's StudentCam is a national documentary competition for middle and high school students, where participants produce short documentary films on national policy or civic topics. Names of the five Centennial students, the documentary topic, and the placement level are in the linked HCPSS announcement. The full release is linked in the description, and we will update if HCPSS shares additional details.

Howard County residents are upset after a gas station development was approved on a cemetery site, according to CBS News. The decision was reported June 10. The cemetery site's location, the approval body, and the developer are detailed in the linked CBS News report. Residents who spoke at hearings raised concerns about the appropriateness of the approval given the site's history. Specific site, parcel, and approval-vote details are in the CBS story. The story is linked in the description, and we will follow up if county officials respond or the decision is appealed.

Rachel Hess of Elkridge Landing Middle School has been named the 2026 Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics Outstanding Middle School Mathematics Teacher of the Year. Hess teaches mathematics and serves as the school's mathematics instructional team leader. Tiffany Palmer, secondary mathematics coach at Mayfield Woods and Thomas Viaduct middle schools, was named the 2026 MCTM Outstanding Mathematics Leader of the Year. Both honors were announced by HCPSS on June 9. The Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics recognizes educators across the state each year for classroom excellence and instructional leadership. The full HCPSS release is linked in the description.

WBAL-TV has published the 2026 Howard County primary election Voter's Guide. The guide covers candidate profiles, ballot information, and voting details for the upcoming primary. Howard County voters who want to review the field ahead of election day can use the guide. The Voter's Guide also covers down-ballot races. Specific polling-location and hours information for primary election day is on the Howard County Board of Elections website. Mail-in and early-vote details are also on the Board of Elections site. The WBAL-TV story is linked in the description.

Manga for Mayor voting runs all day through June 18 at the Glenwood Branch of the Howard County Library System. The poll asks Glenwood patrons to vote on which manga character should be Mayor. The library hosts the campaign as a branch-wide, all-day event. Voting opened May 26 and closes June 18. The Howard County Library calendar is linked in the description.

Coming up today at Howard County Library System branches. Grassroots Crisis Intervention has staff available at the Elkridge Branch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The East Columbia Branch hosts Magazine Mosaic and Paper Collage with J. Scott from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Teen Afterschool Programming runs at the East Columbia Branch from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The Savage Branch hosts the Teen 3D Printing Club from 3 to 5 p.m. All four events are free. Full library calendar with branch-by-branch programming is linked in the description.

Also today. HCPSS announced that 195 teachers achieved their National Board Certification in December 2025, with 179 first-time achievers, up from 164 in 2024, and 16 teachers renewing certification at the five- or ten-year mark. The new HCPSS Student Member of the Board has taken the helm, per Patch. Howard County math teachers received state honors, per Patch — that's the Rachel Hess and Tiffany Palmer recognition from earlier in the brief. A Howard County state lawmaker and a businessman are aiming for top office in the executive race, per CBS News reporting from Tuesday. Phase Six of Blandair Regional Park opened in Columbia on Monday. County Executive Calvin Ball dedicated a bocce court to community advocate Grace Kubofcik, the Queen of Bocce. Ball broke ground on the county's first Bus Rapid Transit stop, capping a decade of planning. Howard County earned the highest AAA credit rating from all three major rating agencies. The Howard County Department of Finance posted updated information on resident Tax Credits — eligibility and applications are on the finance department website. The Finance Department also rolled out new Property Tax Digital Communications, with sign-up for digital tax bills on the finance site. On r/HowardCountyMD, neighbors are discussing the Howard Crossing development on Route 1 in Elkridge.

Election day is around the corner, and the campaign is the loudest story this week. But scroll down the brief and Howard County teachers are quietly stacking the kind of recognition that compounds. Five Centennial 10th graders in a national C-SPAN competition. Rachel Hess named the state's outstanding math teacher. 195 National Board Certified teachers. Whichever way the executive race breaks, the people who actually run the school day are doing the work. Watch how the candidates talk about teacher retention, classroom investment, and the FY 2027 school budget as the campaign closes.

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