original projections were 24% in the city and as of 3:00 this afternoon less than 9% of registered voters came to the polls. baltimore county is not much better. the elections director katie brown tells us the original projections were 25% to 30% turnout. as of 3:00 this afternoon it was far less than 20% in the county. early voting is only counting for about 3% of the voters. she says this could be a record year in a bad way. >> we're averaging anywhere from 200 to 300 at a precinct. there are 23 precincts in baltimore county, some coming in just breaking 500 after 3:00 today. that's pretty low. >> is that surprising? >> it is. i was expecting at least 25% to 30% turnout. we had a 33% turnout back in 2006. for the gubernatorial primary. so i was hoping we would reach around that. >> both brown and jones say they do expect the numbers to pick up. some after people start getting off work and going to the polls

but not by much. roosevelt leftwich, abc2 news. for months you've heard them talk about the changes they would bring to the community. gregg bernstein says he understands crime, patricia jessamy says you need her experience. tonight you decide who is the best person for the state's attorney job in baltimore city. we begin with christian schaffer who is live in south baltimore with the patricia jessamy camp. chris? >> reporter: that's right. i'm at the baltimore rowing club where supporters of patricia jessamy will gather tonight. she's on the -- optimistic in the final hours of voting. right now they are traveling around the city. she hopes to visit about 50 polling places today. she's been at that all day talking to voters and trying to gauge the opinion out there but again turnout as rosy said is very low. some precincts around here i checked, i checked four precincts in south baltimore, they were all around 9%, 10%, 11%. really low turnout. i asked the spokeswoman about that.

she said -- she gave me a statement. the spokeswoman for patricia jessamy said the public is smart, low voter turnout indicates they are pleased with the representation they have. she goes on to say they are smart enough not to turn over the prosecutors office to criminal defense attorneys. that last shot at gregg bernstein who also was a defense attorney and some supporters in this race, also prominent defense attorneys in the city of baltimore. the spokeswoman said she hoped a high turnout would favor patricia jessamy but if it's low turnout she said a win is a win. patricia jessamy is expected to arrive here between 8:00 and 9:00 tonight. we'll watch the numbers all evening long. christian schaffer, abc2 news. >> thank you. let's check in with abc2 news brian kuebler who is busy working with the gregg bernstein camp and has the latest from canton tonight. brian? >> reporter: it's still very quiet at jd's smokehouse on the square in canton as people are basically just waiting and

watching. the polls are still open for yet another two hours and the bernstein campaign we're told is at a bunch of polling places throughout the city. out and about trying to secure those very last votes. earlier today he cast his own ballot. after a hard-fought race between himself and current state's attorney patricia jessamy bernstein told us this morning he feels very confident about the i known for a few more hours. his watch party is scheduled to get underway at 8:00. we will monitor the numbers as they come in. and let you know exactly what is going on from here in canton. for now, live in canton, brian kuebler, abc2 news. now the race for baltimore county executive, another close race that we're watching. let's check in with joe bartenfelder who is vying for that spot. jeff hager is there in parkville. he's been out all evening long?

>> reporter: he has been. he spent 16 years on the baltimore county council. joe is understandably out at the polls pushing it to the end hoping to be a visible presence in the last two hours of polling. earlier today, he got up at the crack of dawn much like you would expect a longtime farmer to do, went out to cast his vote at the fullerton firehouse. since that time his campaign tells me he has about a thousand volunteers that have been working both the polls, precincts throughout the county and running trucks with campaign signs around the baltimore beltway. honest joe as he calls himself has run a relentless campaign of knocking on doors and trying to pick up supporters face-to-face. campaign workers here seem under deterred by the fact this fellow councilman kevin kamenetz outraised him in donations and outspent him in advertising by a 4-1 margein. workers take heart even with the slight voter turnout based on facebook. we're told in the last 18 hours joe has had a flurry of activity, a number of supporters posting things while

they look at their oh poapt's site and -- opponent's site and say it's been virtually void of any such activity. back to you. >> thank you. now to bartenfelder's opponent, democrat kevin kamenetz, another longtime county councilman. spent a lot of money on advertising. cheryl conner live in pikesville with the latest on the primaries there tonight. >> reporter: he's an attorney, a 16-year county councilman and hopes to become the next baltimore county executive. we may know later tonight right here at the hilton in pikesville if kevin kamenetz moves on to the general election. his supporters and campaign did not rest on this election day. kamenetz was scheduled to make seven stops at polling places across the county starting in his hometown of owings mills. you see him here at cromwell valley elementary school this afternoon. kamenetz raised and spent thousands of dollars on his campaign, recently spending money on a tv ad attacking his

opponent joe bartenfelder's record on the environment. the candidates have a lot of the same things to say when it comes to their plans for the county. such as business development and running county government more efficiently. it really comes down to a question, whether voters want kamenetz, the attorney or bartenfelder the farmer. i spoke to the campaign manager for kevin kamenetz who says they are cautiously optimistic about that low voter turnout across the area and also seen in baltimore county because they say they saw high turnout in key areas during early voting. we are expecting supporters to show up here in the next few hours as the polls close. they close at 8:00. kevin kamenetz is supposed to be here at 9:00. we will be waiting and watching with him as he hopes to move on to the general election for baltimore county executive. live in pikesville, cheryl conner, abc2 news. you can't use

the weather as an excuse to not go out and vote. we're going to keep it nice and dry, a few clouds passing by but no rain and temperatures pleasant, mid to upper 70s. look at the satellite view across the state now. we are cloudy from baltimore southward down through dc and southern maryland. also much of the eastern shore under the clouds right now. we're clearing out in western maryland and our northern counties, northern baltimore county, northern carroll and northern harford county. winds light and variable, gusty at times. we saw gusts up to 20. that led to enhanced fire risk and special statement from the national weather service. mid-70s, a little warmer west. 81 frederick. 73 easton. the rest of the evening, we're in the 70s. variably cloudy, a pleasant couple of hours left to vote. and an early look at the hour by hour forecast tomorrow. some sunshine, we'll see 60s early in the day. and then temperatures warming into the upper 70s by late in the afternoon. there are big changes in terms of our chances of rain coming

up towards the weekend. we'll look at that and all the way to sunday, coming up. maryland congressman dutch ruppersberger faces a primary challenge from a fellow democrat who says he wants to end reckless spending in congress. accountant jeffrey morris of pasadena is one of three democrats hoping to derail dutch ruppersberger's quest for a fifth term. constitution -- abc2 news is your source for democracy 2010. we have live team coverage tonight. as always abc2news.com will have you covered with up to the minute results. you can head there now for interviews with candidates in a number of primary races. no it is one of the oldest catholic institutions for young girls in baltimore. tonight they are celebrating a major milestone at notre-dame prep school in towson. the dangers of the over the counter cough medicines. why the fda could require you to have a prescription for them. >> 79 degrees our average high temperature this

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a crowded field of republicans is competing for the chance to take on most likely democratic senator barbara mikulski who is seeking her fifth term. she faces six challengers. 11 republican candidates are running, county commissioner eric wargotz seems to be the front runner in that race. he poured $over $a 00,000 of

his own money into his bid. $500,000. the youngest person running against peter franchot is 18-year-old brendan madigan who is still in high school. campbell justed received an endorsement from republican gubernatorial candidate and former governor robert ehrlich. a third candidate is 72-year-old armand girard, retired high school math teacher from baltimore. in other news tonight -- daytime talk show host queen oprah winfrey landed the first television interview with the hostages from the discovery channel headquarters in silver spring. two weeks ago 43-year-old james lee was shot and killed by officers as his three captors were preparing to make a break for it. lee had explosives strapped to his body, hostages included two discovery employees and a security guard. the interview is scheduled to air on thursday.

a man accused of running the baltimore operation of the notorious black guerilla family prison gang pled guilty to a drug conspiracy charge. todd duncan appeared for a rearraignment this morning in u.s. district court. his attorney says he and prosecutors will request a 15-year sentence as part of his plea deal which allows him to avoid a trial. tonight baltimore county police need your help trying to identify this man. they say he's responsible for robbing the bank of america in the 600 block of reisterstown road last week. anyone with information about the identity of this person or whereabouts is asked to call metro crime stoppers at 1-866-7-lockup. good news, power in baltimore's little italy neighborhood has been fully restored. crews worked all day yesterday to replace an underground cable that failed sunday morning. there's still no word on the cause of the fire that damaged the underground cable.

it's 15 years ago today that students entered the doors to the new towson campus. students took to the streets to celebrate the occasion. students and parents lined the parade route singing the alma mater. the school continues to provide a vibrant education with the ideals of academics, spirituality and service for girls in grades six through 12. students carried colorful class banners dating back to the 1960s. for students, parents and teachers, it was a very proud moment. >> we're just celebrating how we've been here for 50 years and how we've been able to keep traditions and also move forward. >> more than

has been great. i hope it holds up for your swim across - >> across america and in this case, across the chesapeake coming up sunday. we feared we would get a sharp cold front that would drop the water temperature which is 73 now. looks like we won't have that happen. so happy to report that. last sunday, that would have been a really chilly day to have. still a little time to vote. weather will hold up nicely. our live video stream from germantown. this is montgomery county. nice spot. you can see a lot of traffic there, on i-270 to the south. conditions at bwi marshall 76 mild degrees. humidity 37%. northwest winds at 6 right now. let's show you some of our weathernet cameras in motion across the state. mount airy, a little cloudy start but then the blue skies break out nicely into the afternoon. then we got clouds in here midday as that front pushed

through. now skies clearing from the west as that front slowly tries to push south of the baltimore area. laurel today, similar story there, blue sky early, then clouds, then clearing as we truck toward what is an ever earlier sunset across the state. some of those gusts of wind today, a little high, gusting to 20 in fallston. 28 downtown. we gusted to 21 in arnold. but right now as we look at the highs you can see it was still a mild day even with the stout breezes out of the west. as we check out the highs across the state today, from 81 cambridge to 80 hagerstown. pretty even in those low 80s but the temperatures dropping more sharply now as the sun sets a little earlier each night. we're already down to 75 in annapolis. let's show you a look across the region now. there's that boundary, that cool front that came through earlier. you can still see the clouds holing pretty tough here, basically from about, say laurel and columbia southward through dc and on into southern maryland. the clouds will steadily clear

from north-to-south. we've painted that front as a stationery front because it's shifting so slowly to the south. slow-moving cold front i guess you would call it. it will keep the warmest air to the south. our forecast into the day tomorrow, just partly cloudy skies. i think we stay dry. another dry day thursday so our enhanced fire risk statewide still continues despite the rain we had sunday but another shot of rain coming in looks like as we go towards thursday evening. to front with an area of low pressure along it should douse us with showers overnight thursday into early friday and clear for the weekend. so that is great timing. i want to check out the tropics. man, they are still awfully hot. hurricane igor still a powerhouse category 4 storm, looking a lot like our earl storm we had earlier this season and hurricane julia now officially a hurricane from the national hurricane center that is a category 1. the track of igor takes it very close into bermuda. winds sustained 145 moving

toward the island. you can see maybe right on top of bermuda by about 2:00 sunday afternoon. so weekend cruises to bermuda will probably have to be changed, those plans possibly. overnight tonight, 54, a few clouds, a quiet weather pattern tomorrow in maryland. 79, partly sunny, a little breezy, nice day. then tomorrow night, more of the same. cool, 56 and dry. let's check out the outlook for the weekend. and the rest of the week. again, the best chance of rain overnight thursday into friday. thursday should be dry through the day. then the showers clear by friday night talking about a splendid weekend, september looking good. lots of sunshine, 83 sunday. there was a lot of trash talking going on even before the ravens ever took the field against the jets last night at the new meadowlands. and for about two quarters things didn't look too good. thanks to a defensive

performance, what harbaugh said was the best he had ever seen the ravens won. ray lewis and the defense didn't allow a touchdown and limited the jets to just six first downs for the entire day. next step for the ravens, the bengals in cincinnati. game time is 1:00 on sunday. tonight at 11:00 -- the polls will be closed and the numbers will be coming in. will the favorites prevail or will the updates rule the day? we have you covered with all the latest up to the minute results and live coverage from the races that you are talking about. we'll keep you posted thought the evening on air and on-line at abc2news.com. in tonight's "health alert" -- 8,000 people landed in emergency rooms across the u.s. last year all because of misuses of over the counter cough medications. most of them were teens like carl henin, where many of his high school years he was getting high on over the counter cough syrups.

one morning he didn't wake up. his mother, a registered nurse spent the last seven years making sure other parents are aware that over the counter cough medicines can be abused. in fact the problem has gotten so bad the food and drug administration is considering whether it should make some cough medicines only available by prescription. but cough medicine makers say it should be up to parents and not to the government to curb abuse. >> many parents do not talk to their children but we do know that parents who do talk to their children have a 50% decrease in using drugs. >> an fda committee held an advisory hearing on the subject today. if it agrees these medicines should become prescription and will forward its recommendations to the fda for its final decision. we're counting down the days until komen maryland race for the cure, happens sunday, october 3rd in hunt valley. we'll be live on the air to broadcast the event. sunday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. here's how you can register for the big race. head to our web site,

abc2news.com, when you get there click on the lifestyle tab and then you can click on "think pink." we'll be right back.

better than expected retail sales numbers kept wall street from dipping

deep into the red today. take a look at the numbers for you. the dow jones lost 17, almost 18. the nasdaq up 4 and the s&p 500 down not quite one. people still have an hour and a half to vote. >> they do. the weather is going to be great. that's not an excuse. none of that. >> perfect. >> doing our duty. let's look at the temperature now as people make the late runs to the polls. 74 fallston. we're cooling off but still mild evening out there across the baltimore area. and hour by hour through your day tomorrow we start off in 60s, climbing up close to 80 in the afternoon. plenty of sun, too, so looks nice. >> that's it for abc2 news at 6:00. for complete election coverage leave it here and we'll see you at 11:00. everyone knows a fee is a tax. you raised some taxes during that period, particularly the property tax as well as a lot of fee increases.

as you know, there's a big difference between fees and taxes. but...they're the same. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. there's a big difference between fees and taxes. fees and taxes are one in the same. if it comes out of my pocket, it's a tax. now he says it isn't true. we didn't raise taxes. what? still doing the same thing, paying out more money. typical politician. definitely. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] mcdonald's new chicken flatbreads. all out awesome combinations of juicy, grilled chicken topped with roasted garlic aioli and a natural four-cheese blend. mcdonald's chicken flatbreads. the simple joy of new discoveries.

my commute home to the eastern shore every night only takes an hour but that's more time than congress spends reading massive spending bills, it's crazy.

that's why i wrote a law that requires 72 hours to read every bill. i read the big bills and i said no. no to the $3 trillion budget, no to the bank bailout, and no to the health care bill. at home you would never pay a bill without reading it neither should congress. i'm frank kratovil and i approve this message because i'm proud to be ranked one of the most independent members of congress.