Vincent Orange Returns to D.C. Council

Vincent Orange, the former Ward 5 councilmember, is now councilmember once again, this time as an at-large member. Mr. Orange secured 12,216 votes, or 28 percent, according to unofficial election results from the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics for Tuesday’s special election.

Republican Patrick Mara, who received the Washington Post‘s endorsement, finished second with a surprising 11,096 votes, about 26 percent of the vote.

Councilmember Sekou Biddle finished third with 8,842 votes, or about 20 percent. In January, Biddle, who represented Ward 4 on the State Board of Education, was selected by the D.C. Democratic State Committee to fill the at-large seat vacated when Kwame Brown became Council chair.

Bryan Weaver, a former Ward 1 ANC commissioner who ran a strong campaign for Ward 1 councilmember in the fall, finished fourth with about 13 percent of the vote. Joshua Lopez, who worked in the Fenty campaign, received about 7 percent. Tom Brown, Dorothy Douglas, Arkan Haile and Alan Page split the remainder of the votes.

Throughout the city voting was light. Nellie McDonald has been the ballot clerk for Precinct 110 in Ward 7 for 35 years. She said, “There wasn’t a lot of campaigning. Generally this neighborhood is littered with signs but we didn’t have that this time.”

At Councilmember Biddle’s home precinct at Shepherd Elementary the polls didn’t open until 7:14 a.m., causing at least one person to leave without casting a ballot. Precinct Captain SaVanna Wanzer said, “We need more ballot clerks and staff to make sure that everything opens up on time.” Biddle said, “It’s unfortunate that they were not ready at 7:00 a.m… That’s just totally unacceptable.”

Despite the early morning glitch, voting appeared to run smoothly at polling places across the city thanks to the work of the unsung civic heroes we call poll workers. Shirley Dowtin has been the Precinct 59 captain since 1968. At Calvin Coolidge High School in Ward 4, Dowtin said, “I feel good when I see older people with canes [come vote] and I remember when I registered them.”

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