On a primary day that lived up to expectations – gray drizzly skies and a light turnout – a drive around town to visit polling stations became a scramble to find talkative voters and a chance to ponder the differing approaches to political signage.

On front lawns and porches on the Eastside, there were relatively few displays for either top candidate for the city’s top job, Mayor Brandon Scott and former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

As for the polling places, there was the usual cluster of markers for a host of candidates. Among them was usually a single, very big blue-and-yellow one for Scott.

Utility poles in heavily trafficked areas were another bit of turf claimed by the 40-year-old incumbent.

Taped up and stapled together, high on metal poles along thoroughfares like Harford Road, were yellow-and-black Scott placards that gave the appearance of official city signs about road restrictions or special events.

“Mayor Brandon Scott: A leader we can count on,” they said. “Reelect Mayor Brandon Scott.”

“I think those went up last night,” said Allison Seyler, a volunteer for 3rd District candidate Councilman Ryan Dorsey, eyeing one of them.

The 70-year-old Dixon, meanwhile, generally had a forest of small-sized, red-and-white signs outside each polling place.

At the Collington Square Elementary/Middle School in Broadway East, there was a homemade display touting her candidacy.

Protruding from the school’s rusty chain link fence were an assembly of placards displaying the words “A Brighter Tomorrow for Baltimore” embossed across Dixon’s signature red jacket.

“Are you here to vote today?” inquired one of her volunteers, sprinting to greet a potential voter and to explain that he had devised the unique display.

“Feel free to take one!”

“She tells it like it is”

At several locations on the Eastside, there were no Scott signs and no Scott volunteers.

Such was the case at the Immanuel Temple AME Church, at 2931 East Madison Street across from Frank C. Bocek Park.

One of the two volunteers sporting a red Dixon tee shirt and clutching Dixon literature was eager to say why she was all in for the onetime mayor.

“She did it before. She can do it again. We didn’t have no crime when she in,” the volunteer said. “She knows how to talk to people. She tells it like it is. She wasn’t playing when she said no more killing – she meant it!”

“She did it before. She can do it again”  – a Sheila Dixon supporter.

A voter who emerged from the building was also an enthusiastic Dixon supporter.

“She had the position before, she knows what we need exactly,” he declared, going on to complain that the incumbent “doesn’t show up where the people are. He doesn’t come around.”

Before either of them could elaborate or identify themselves, Election Judge Alicia Byrd came outside and told The Brew to stop speaking with people.

“You can’t be doing this,” Byrd asserted, stating incorrectly that the media cannot conduct interviews outside a polling place.

“He showed up”

Outside Hampstead Hill Elementary School in Patterson Park, it was another story.

Volunteers for Scott and Dixon – as well as for 1st District City Council contenders Mark Parker and Liam Davis – were all on hand.

Several voters who spoke to us said they favored Scott and Parker.

“I voted for [Scott] the first time because of his City Council experience, I liked his responses about the Key Bridge. I like that he’s committed to reducing violence,” said Katherine Klosek, of Highlandtown.

“I liked his response on the Key Bridge. I like that he’s committed to reducing violence”  – a Brandon Scott voter.

She was more enthusiastic about Breath of God Lutheran Church Pastor Parker, who is seeking to win the seat Zeke Cohen is vacating to run for City Council president.

“He’s shown himself to be a really great leader in the community,” Klosek said, praising Parker’s efforts to help provide meals to needy residents and offer help in crises.

“There was a fire that happened in my neighborhood, and he showed up. He was very reassuring.”

Another voter at the polling place, Rachel Okun, said she had nothing against Davis, “but I just don’t know him. I don’t see him.”

Together with Scott, Parker was her choice today. “I like how he uses his faith to advocate for justice,” she said.

Race in the Senate

Okun and her husband, who came to the polling place with their two young sons, said they see a move toward ranked choice voting as more important than casting a vote for any one candidate.

“It’s the only way we’re going to have election integrity,” Kevin Okun said.

“It’s the only way we’re going to end a system that upholds white supremacy,” Rachel Okun added.

Both she and Klosek invoked race in explaining their vote for Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who is Black, over Rep. David Trone, who is white, in the closely watched race to replace retiring U.S. Senator Ben Cardin.

“Why did I pick her over him?” Klosek offered. “I’ll just say it – we don’t need anymore white men in there!”

Least Corrupt?

In the northeast Baltimore’s 3rd District, meanwhile, Tristan Abbott presented himself as your basic skeptical voter.

Why was he casting his vote for Councilman Ryan Dorsey to be re-elected?

“He’s the least corrupt one on the Council,” Abbott told The Brew.

Abbott did have some positive reasons for his choice.

For example, the Lauraville resident said he liked Dorsey’s push for Complete Streets legislation and bike lanes in the neighborhood, even though he thought the rollout of the changes was abrupt and “poorly handled.”

“You’ve got to admit it’s safer now,” he said. “Look at how many fewer accidents there are on Harford vs. Belair Road.”

Asked his choice for mayor, though, Abbott reverted to cynical citizen mode.

“Brandon Scott, for the same reason I gave before,” he said. “He’s least corrupt.”