The candidates for Baltimore sheriff remained neck and neck Friday afternoon as election officials continued to release tallies of mail-in votes. At least 10,000 mail-in ballots remain to be counted, city election officials said.

Sam Cogen, a former top sheriff’s deputy, was nosing out his old boss with 30,383 votes. Incumbent John W. Anderson, who is running for his ninth term, had 29,929 votes. The full results of Tuesday’s primary might not be known for weeks as election officials began counting mail-in ballots Thursday. Both Anderson and Cogen are running for the Democratic nomination. No Republican has registered to run, which means the Democratic primary will decide the contest.

“We put in a lot of work and we ran a very clean campaign on the issues. We really focused on trying to educate the public about how important it would be for public safety in Baltimore for us to have a modernized sheriff’s office and it looks like the public paid attention,” said Cogen.

Anderson did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. He has held the office since 1989, when he was appointed by then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer. Anderson, 75, is the state’s longest-serving sheriff. He has been reluctant to embrace new technology and does not have a computer in his office.

As of Friday evening, Cogen edged Anderson out among early voters by fewer than 100 votes. However, Cogen had captured a slim majority of votes cast on Election Day and among mail-in ballots. Democratic voters in Baltimore returned more than 23,000 mail-in ballots, according to state data, and thousands remain to be counted.

Anderson drew the ire of Baltimore City Council members this year who accused his deputies of not properly following eviction procedures. Council members docked $500,000 from the sheriff’s budget following a tense hearing last month. Nine of the 15 council members, as well as Baltimore Comptroller Bill Henry, endorsed Cogen, who ran on a platform of upgrading the technology in the sheriff’s office to make it more efficient. Cogen has also called for “humanizing” the process of evictions and ensuring the tenants have sufficient warning that they are in danger of being booted from their home.

Cogen, 48, joined the sheriff’s office in 1997, quickly scaling the rungs of the organization. He undertook a fellowship with the National Police Foundation’s Institute for Integrity in Leadership and Professionalism in Policing, led the sheriff’s deputies’ union and was the sheriff’s office’s representative on the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.

Cogen retired from the office last fall, saying it would be a distraction if he continued to serve while running against his old boss. He is president of the South Baltimore Neighborhood Association and is the public safety chair of Federal Hill Main Street.

The tradition of electing a sheriff dates back to medieval England, when they were the king’s law enforcement operatives in small towns, or shires. The word sheriff stems from the term “shire reeve.” The powers of a sheriff vary widely across states and counties in this country, with the sheriff serving as the top law enforcement official in many areas.

In Baltimore City, the sheriff oversees court security, transports prisoners to and from the courts, supervises elections, and serves both bench warrants and domestic violence orders.

julie.scharper@thebaltimorebanner.com

Read more:

• No computer, but Baltimore sheriff runs on experience in reelection bid
• Mail ballot counting begins across Maryland, with several races still to be decided
• Here’s what to know as Maryland begins counting mail ballots on Thursday