Baltimore voters rejected a Republican-backed measure to drastically shrink the City Council, according to partial election results, and council members are expressing optimism the trend will hold.

With 293 of 295 precincts reporting and more than 62% of ballots cast against Question H, The Baltimore Banner has called the election against the measure. The outcome, council members and advocates say, sends a clear signal to Baltimore County media mogul David Smith that the city is not interested in his brand of politics.

This is just the second time in 25 years city voters have voted down a ballot measure.

Smith, who owns The Baltimore Sun and is executive chairman of the television company Sinclair Inc., funded the Question H campaign and his news organizations gave the measure extensive coverage in the run-up to Election Day.

The Sun ran a number of full-page advertisements in support of Question H in recent weeks.

Smith did not respond to emailed questions.

“You can buy a building. You can buy a newspaper. But you can’t buy us,” newly elected council President Zeke Cohen said.

City officials had made a late push against Question H, warning residents that approving the measure, which sought to cut the City Council to eight members from 14, would reduce representation and mean poorer constituent services. They had also pitched the vote as a fight between self-governance and the whims of an out-of-town billionaire who sought to reshape the city to his liking.

Their campaign, Stop Sinclair, raised relatively little money — they did not purchase a television ad, because they could not afford it — and relied largely on door knocking and direct outreach through social media and text messaging. Yard signs in front of homes and polling places urged people to vote no on Question H, some with the slogan “Billionaires can’t have Baltimore,” though it’s not clear if Smith is a billionaire.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos, expressing excitement, praised the opposition campaign’s efforts to preserve the council’s current structure.

“This is about sending a message to Sinclair and David Smith that they cannot mess with Baltimore,” Ramos said.

Optimism among council members and advocates grew throughout Tuesday as they visited polling sites and heard from voters.

Council newcomer Zac Blanchard, in a phone interview, said conversations he and volunteers had at polling sites Tuesday cemented his view they would beat back the measure.

“The only question was if we could get the word out enough so that people knew what they were voting for,” Blanchard said. “It was obvious we would win the informed voters in a landslide.”

Councilman Mark Conway was more blunt in his assessment early Tuesday.

“Across the board, I didn’t come across a single person who felt that was a good idea,” the North Baltimore councilman said.

And then there was Councilman Ryan Dorsey. When asked before polls closed how he felt about the outcome, Dorsey wrote in a text: “Shit is going down.”

Voters across Baltimore seemed appalled at the idea of shrinking the City Council. Mary Braman, a photographer at the South Baltimore newspaper The Peninsula Post, said Question H was an easy no.

“We need all the help we can get in this city, not less,” Braman said.

Derika Newsome cast her no vote on H at Thomas Johnston Elementary and Middle School and said council size “going down wouldn’t really be good for the city.”

Another voter, Grant Miller, said the city needed better representation, not less.

“I was out for five hours, and I talked to maybe one guy who signed the petition [to put Question H on the ballot] and said this is what he wanted,” Stacey Mink, a spokesperson for the Question H opposition group Baltimore City is Not For Sale, said. “I must have talked to maybe 100 voters. There were a bunch of people who came in and knew exactly what it was and it was not what they wanted.”

Former Republican mayoral candidate Jovani Patterson chairs People for Elected Accountability and Civic Engagement, the political committee that Smith funds and that petitioned to put Question H on the ballot, and had tried to paint the measure as one designed to combat government waste. Patterson, in a text message, said the election results means the “status quo remains.”

“The bureaucracy came out in full force when challenged, but ultimately the people of Baltimore have spoken,” he wrote.

The City Council passed on an opportunity this summer to place a competing measure on the ballot, opting instead to fight Question H directly at the ballot box. Most council members, save for those who lost their primaries, and Mayor Brandon Scott worked with labor leaders in recent weeks on a grassroots campaign to preserve the current council size.

Many thought Question H’s passage was a foregone conclusion. Going back to 1999, there had been more than 150 ballot questions put to voters in Baltimore and just one, a 2004 effort to lower the age requirement for joining the City Council, had been rejected.

And Smith had previously had success with ballot questions in Baltimore. In 2022, he successfully funded a campaign to impose a two-term limit on city officials. He has also circulated petitions to implement a recall mechanism, and there’s speculation that could be his next move. Smith did not return a message seeking comment.

This is not Smith’s first electoral loss this year. In May, voters overwhelmingly sided with Scott in the Democratic primary over former Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had significant financial backing from Smith and his friends.

Still, Smith’s influence on Baltimore politics remains outsized. The talking points of candidates he backs regularly take center stage, and Sinclair’s flagship TV station, WBFF Fox45 Baltimore, will give outsized coverage to those issues. He will pay legal fees for people willing to sue his ideological opponents.

Unlike in 2022, Scott and council members opted to oppose Smith head-on, with the mayor regularly taunting the Baltimore County resident on social media and in interviews. Scott had accused Smith of using his money to consolidate political power into the hands of wealthy white men.

Scott said the Question H results prove that Baltimore is not for sale, and that the politics of “MAGA Republicans” won’t be accepted.

“They can buy media stations, they can buy newspapers, they can put out partisan hit job sentiments in their outlets,” Scott said. “All that is not going to convince the voters of Baltimore that their way is the right way.”

Banner Reporters Emily Opilo, Hallie Miller and Ellie Wolfe contributed reporting.