Ward 3 special election winner: Kate Stewart

Kate Stewart won the special election for the Ward 3 city-council seat, formerly held by Kay Daniels-Cohen.

The final tally was 332 votes for Kate and 324 votes for Roger Schelegel. A real squeaker! Instant Runoff Voting kicked in. Those figures include second choices of people who voted for Jeffrey Noel-Nosbaum or a write-in as a first choice. Those second-choice votes split 9-9.

A bit of history: The 1985 Takoma Park mayoral race was decided by 7 votes, with Stephen Del Giudice defeating incumbent Sam Abbott.

Early-voting turn-out was heavy: 253 people voted Sunday or Monday. Congratulations to Jeffrey, Roger, and Kate for the strong effort that led to the (relatively) high overall turn-out, and to Kate for coming out on top. I look forward to working with her on the council, and to Roger and Jeffery on community issues. I hope to have stats soon on same-day registration and voting and on voting by 16 and 17 year olds, and FairVote may release results from their exit surveys.

The council will convene this evening (Wednesday) to accept the Ward 3 election results.

[The council will meet again Thursday evening, at 7:30 pm, for the first of our budget worksessions, focusing on Communications, Library, Public Works, and Police, and on Thursday, April 17 for a budget worksession focusing on Housing and Community Development, Recreation, Non-Departmental, and General Government (Information Systems, Human Resources, City Clerk, City Manager, Finance). Kate won’t have been sworn in yet but she’ll be welcome to participate.]

Then, Monday evening, April 21, there will be a reception welcoming Kate, at 6:30 pm at the community center, and Kate will be sworn in at 7 pm.

Now on to June 24, the Maryland primaries!