It seems we may have moved into some sort of a time warp. Voters across the nation woke up Tuesday morning, went to their local polling precincts and learned the results later that evening or read about them the next day. But things were different in the District: While we know who probably didn’t win the Democratic mayoral primary, we don’t know who did. It’s likely we won’t see a definite winner named until later next week.
How could this happen, you ask? Didn’t we learn anything after the debacle of the 2000 presidential election? Wasn’t the frustration of not knowing who our next leader was enough to permanently alter our ways? Well, the delay this time is much different from that fateful November two years ago, at least in the District. The problem stems from the fact that the two most prominent candidates, including the incumbent Mayor Anthony Williams, are not even on the ballot. Instead, 91 percent of tvoters wrote in their candidate’s name, leaving the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to count more than 80,000 ballots by hand, a process with which we are all more familiar with after the now-infamous Bush-Gore battle of yore.
Unsurprisingly, the official candidates on the primary ballot, James Clark, Osie L. Thorpe, Douglas E. Moore and Faith failed to collectively garner the support of even 10 percent of the electorate. Instead, the battle has come down to two powerhouses: incumbent Mayor Williams and minister Willie F. Wilson. The elections board has said that the manual counting will take seven to 10 days.
And the votes will be counted according to specific criteria which the elections board decided on prior to the primary. Ideally, this will allow the board to avoid the confusion and accusations of partisanship that followed the Florida recounts. It was the saga of Williams’ campaign woes over the course of the summer that afforded the board enough warning to prepare.
While we’re waiting to hear the results, both Williams and Wilson remain hopeful, despite what many analysts say will still be on overwhelming conquest for Williams. The Washington Post predicted from exit poll interviews that he was defeating Wilson by a 3-to-1 margin, but Wilson’s supporters said they would continue to hold out hope until all of the votes are counted. If Williams does win, it will mean that much of the hand-wringing and worrying about mounting a legitimate write-in campaign will have been for naught. Perhaps his (replacement) campaign staff will offer a course to political hopefuls around the country on how to successfully draw enough media attention to win a write-in campaign. Or else they’ll go back to the less stressful policy of collecting legitimate signatures to get their candidate on the ballot.
The winner of the Democratic primary will move on to the general election Nov. 5, facing the Green Party candidate and possibly a Republican candidate as well. The Green Party candidate for the November election is still a mystery: The only name on the ballot in Tuesday’s primary, Steve Donkin, won 43 percent of the vote, with the majority going to a yet-unnamed write-in candidate or candidates. The Republicans did not run anyone in the primary, but current D.C. Council member Carol Schwartz, who has run for mayor three times already, has discussed the possibility of entering the race again. She has until Monday to decide.
So for now we will continue to wait for the results, pondering past elections and the relatively uncertain future of the District’s leadership. But one thing we won’t be doing is counting anything?that’ll be up to the pros.
