WORCESTER COUNTY– A historically tight County Commissioner’s race came to a wild end on Monday evening as Republican Ted Elder won his party’s nomination for the District 4 seat.
Following the June 24 primary, Worcester County Business Contractors Association President Elder led Costa Ventosa owner and winemaker Kathryn Danko-Lord by three votes. Two days later, after the first round of absentee ballots came in, the two candidates were even at 210 votes each. The race was shaken up again on July 2, as Elder regained the lead, adding four votes to Danko-Lord’s one.
The finally tally on July 7 gave Danko-Lord three additional votes, deadlocking the race at 214 votes each.
“It’s been quite a strange election,” Elder said. “It’s been crazy.”
The race then went to the Worcester County Republican Central Committee, who met Monday evening to sort out the chaos.
“This was absolutely unprecedented in the state of Maryland – this has never happened before,” said WCRCC Treasurer Carol Frazier. “When we got to the meeting we had to discuss what to do. We sought advice from the Maryland GOP and they said, ‘this has never happened before – there’s no precedent – there are no rules for how to handle it.’ And the Board of Elections basically told us the same thing.
“What we were left with is we had to decide what procedure we should use and how we should go about this,” Frazier continued. “We had a lot of witnesses present, including both of the candidates, and we discussed it openly in front of everyone the best way to proceed.”
Frazier said a few members of the committee would have preferred more time to decide on a candidate, but the Board of Elections was pressing for an outcome in order to certify a candidate by the July 10 deadline.
“The procedure we came up with was what we thought was the fairest possible outcome and both candidates agreed,” she said.
The committee agreed on a secret ballot, and each member hand-wrote their vote and sealed it inside an envelope. The two candidates counted the results.
“We were in the meeting with the Central Committee when they did the polling of the members,” Elder said. “The two of us stood at a table and opened them. It was pretty tension-filled up until the point when we finally knew.”
Elder won the final tally seven votes to two.
“It’s a shame it had to be one or the other,” Frazier said. “They were both great people who had a lot to offer and both would have made great commissioners, but you can’t have two.”
Elder will face incumbent Democrat Virgil Shockley in the November general election for District 4.
“We’re kind of catching our breath, but we’re also throwing ideas around right now,” he said. “It’s not like anything’s standing still. If we learned one lesson from this primary it’s that you have to get out early and you have to work hard at it.
“I had someone that voted for me tell me he was thinking about not going out and voting and then he did, and I said, ‘well I wouldn’t be here right now if you hadn’t, so don’t think your vote doesn’t count,’” Elder continued. “It doesn’t matter what it takes – just get there.”
Danko-Lord said she was disappointed, but added, “All things happen for a reason.” The candidate was in Easton when she heard about the final absentee count.
“We decided last week it be would nothing short of a miracle if we were able to pull this off,” she said. “We heard it had never happened before in the history of Worcester County. It’s been a wild ride.
Meanwhile, the District 5 Republican nomination went to Courier newspaper publisher Chip Bertino in a similarly close race. Bertino was ahead of Ocean Pines businessman Grant Helvey by just eight votes after Election Day. Bertino survived 333-321 after all three rounds of absentee votes came in. He will attempt to unseat incumbent Democrat Tom Wilson for the District 5 seat in November.
Following the June 24 primary, Worcester County Business Contractors Association President Elder led Costa Ventosa owner and winemaker Kathryn Danko-Lord by three votes. Two days later, after the first round of absentee ballots came in, the two candidates were even at 210 votes each. The race was shaken up again on July 2, as Elder regained the lead, adding four votes to Danko-Lord’s one.
The finally tally on July 7 gave Danko-Lord three additional votes, deadlocking the race at 214 votes each.
“It’s been quite a strange election,” Elder said. “It’s been crazy.”
The race then went to the Worcester County Republican Central Committee, who met Monday evening to sort out the chaos.
“This was absolutely unprecedented in the state of Maryland – this has never happened before,” said WCRCC Treasurer Carol Frazier. “When we got to the meeting we had to discuss what to do. We sought advice from the Maryland GOP and they said, ‘this has never happened before – there’s no precedent – there are no rules for how to handle it.’ And the Board of Elections basically told us the same thing.
“What we were left with is we had to decide what procedure we should use and how we should go about this,” Frazier continued. “We had a lot of witnesses present, including both of the candidates, and we discussed it openly in front of everyone the best way to proceed.”
Frazier said a few members of the committee would have preferred more time to decide on a candidate, but the Board of Elections was pressing for an outcome in order to certify a candidate by the July 10 deadline.
“The procedure we came up with was what we thought was the fairest possible outcome and both candidates agreed,” she said.
The committee agreed on a secret ballot, and each member hand-wrote their vote and sealed it inside an envelope. The two candidates counted the results.
“We were in the meeting with the Central Committee when they did the polling of the members,” Elder said. “The two of us stood at a table and opened them. It was pretty tension-filled up until the point when we finally knew.”
Elder won the final tally seven votes to two.
“It’s a shame it had to be one or the other,” Frazier said. “They were both great people who had a lot to offer and both would have made great commissioners, but you can’t have two.”
Elder will face incumbent Democrat Virgil Shockley in the November general election for District 4.
“We’re kind of catching our breath, but we’re also throwing ideas around right now,” he said. “It’s not like anything’s standing still. If we learned one lesson from this primary it’s that you have to get out early and you have to work hard at it.
“I had someone that voted for me tell me he was thinking about not going out and voting and then he did, and I said, ‘well I wouldn’t be here right now if you hadn’t, so don’t think your vote doesn’t count,’” Elder continued. “It doesn’t matter what it takes – just get there.”
Danko-Lord said she was disappointed, but added, “All things happen for a reason.” The candidate was in Easton when she heard about the final absentee count.
“We decided last week it be would nothing short of a miracle if we were able to pull this off,” she said. “We heard it had never happened before in the history of Worcester County. It’s been a wild ride.
Meanwhile, the District 5 Republican nomination went to Courier newspaper publisher Chip Bertino in a similarly close race. Bertino was ahead of Ocean Pines businessman Grant Helvey by just eight votes after Election Day. Bertino survived 333-321 after all three rounds of absentee votes came in. He will attempt to unseat incumbent Democrat Tom Wilson for the District 5 seat in November.