By JOE MURCHISON
Courtesy of Wanika Fisher
Prince George’s County is in the midst of a cascade of special elections to fill political vacancies, and County Councilmember Wanika Fisher (District 2), who represents Hyattsville, wants to fix an election problem.
The county’s existing law permits a special primary election to be held within 45 days of vacancy, and the general election within another 45 days. But the county received a letter from the state Attorney General’s Office in June saying county law violated state law by not leaving enough time for the voting process, including receiving ballots from military personnel serving outside the country.
Fisher introduced two bills in September, one for the county executive and one for the county council, that extends the time between vacancy and primary election to 100 days, with another 100 days between the primary and general election. The council will vote on the bills Nov. 19, in its last legislative session of the year.
The cascade of special elections began in the summer, when At-large Councilmember Mel Franklin resigned in June after being indicted for using campaign funds for personal expenses. The special election to fill his seat concluded Nov. 5 with Jolene Ivey, councilmember from District 5, winning.
But her victory leaves open her District 5 seat, which needs to be filled with a special election. Also on Nov. 5, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks was elected to the U.S. Senate — the first Black senator from Maryland — so her position needs to be filled. And since Ivey and another at-large councilmember, Calvin Hawkins, have indicated interest in running for county executive, a third special election would be needed to fill their council spots if either won.
Whether a special election will be needed to replace Alsobrooks is up in the air. County law requires a special election when the county executive vacates the seat in the first two years of the four-year term. After that, the county council is tasked with choosing a successor to fill out the term.
Alsobrooks’ first two years expire on Dec. 5. She will not be sworn in to the U.S. Senate until Jan. 3, 2025. So, she can decide to resign as county executive before Dec. 5, prompting an election, or remain in office beyond that date, triggering a council appointment. If Fisher’s legislation passes, a special election would leave the post open for about seven months, during which time, by law, Alsobrooks’ chief administrative officer, Tara Jackson, would carry out the county executive’s duties.
Neither Alsobrooks nor a spokesperson could be reached for comment.
Fisher’s bills to bring county law into compliance with the state survived a challenge of competing legislation from Councilmember Tom Dernoga(District 1), who represents Laurel.
Dernoga’s bills would have eliminated the primary stage of special elections, leaving all candidates to run in an open general election. He noted that no Republican has even been on the ballot for county executive since 2002, and that only six Republican candidates have run since 2006 in 47 county council elections.
A county council staff analysis of Dernoga’s bills said, “This change would provide multiple benefits to the County, including a reduction in the costs of special elections, a decrease in the amount of time between a Council vacancy and when that vacancy is filled, and a decrease on the demands of the Board of Elections.”
Dernoga said the cost of a countywide special election for county executive and at-large councilmembers is about $4.2 million, while a district special election is about $660,000.
County Councilmember Eric Olson (District 3), who represents College Park, offered an amendment to Dernoga’s bills that would have added ranked choice voting, in which voters rank some or all the candidates for an office and their second-place choices receive a vote if their first-place candidate is eliminated. A majority of the council opposed this amendment. Olson acknowledged one problem was that the county’s Board of Elections reported that the county’s election machines could not support ranked choice voting.
Fisher said Dernoga’s bills raised major issues, without sufficient time to solve them.
She said, for instance, that the county Office of Law found that if the general election were open, candidates would not be able to designate their party on the ballot. Also, thresholds for entering a race without party approval would have to be established, such as collecting a certain number of citizen signatures, Fisher said. “What Tom was proposing does not exist in Maryland. … It’s a policy choice, and a really big one.”
Fisher said she would be open to discussing other possible changes in the special-election process next year.
