By Greg Bassett

Mail-in votes counted Thursday closed the gap in the race to advance to the November election, but Acting County Executive John Psota is still trailing by 361 votes.

As of Thursday night, Julie Giordano has 3,531 votes to Psota's 3170.

Yet-to-arrive mail-in votes, provisional votes and absentee votes might still change that number, but it appears Republican Giordano will move on to face Democrat Ernie Davis and Libertarian Muir Boda in November.

Davis received 4,494 votes on the Democratic side of the ballot.

A Hebron resident, Giordano is a Wicomico County public school teacher currently teaching high school English. She has been teaching for 16 years in Wicomico County. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications/Public Relations and a master’s degree in Leadership, both from Salisbury University. She has been a Wicomico resident for the past 20 years.

In a surprising and unprecedented last-minute move, Giordano announced she would appoint Bunky Luffman of Delmar as the county’s Director of Administration.

A former Delmar Deputy Mayor, Luffman has in recent years worked in state government and is currently Director of Legislative and Constituent Services for the Department of Natural Resources.

The Administration Director serves as the County Executive’s top deputy and performs the detailed management work overseeing county government. It had previously been held by people with deep government and business management experience.

A Salisbury native, Psota has served as Acting County Executive since 2020. He was appointed by the County Council to fill the post, following the death of Bob Culver.

Psota was the new Director of Administration when he was elevated to the top job. Prior to being named Administration Director, Psota had a 25-year career with the Maryland State Police and then served as Fruitland’s City Manager. He holds a Political Science degree from Salisbury University.

Psota earlier this month announced that his preferred vendor of installing high-speed Internet to rural and unserved portions of the county had received a multi-million-dollar state grant to ensure the work proceeds.

Broadband access was among the key issues in the race.

Davis is a current Wicomico County Council member; Boda serves on the Salisbury City Council.

Since 2006, the Wicomico County Executive has served as the chief executive officer of the county. Serving full time, the executive crafts and submits the annual county budget to the County Council, recommends measures for legislative action and oversees all county employees. The executive holds veto power over certain legislation and is a public face of Wicomico County government.