(April 7, 2016) Before the elections last Tuesday, City Clerk Carol Sullivan said results would only take 15 to 30 minutes before they were posted online, and she’d have been right too, if a discrepancy hadn’t surfaced.
As of Wednesday morning and press time, no winner had been declared in an election where 132 total votes were cast. The problem, according to City Manager and City Attorney Ernie Crofoot, is only 127 votes were counted.
Incumbent George Tasker faced Sheila Nelson for the District 1 seat, while Diane Downing, who works for Worcester County, secured her third term in office representing District 2.
“I’d like to get the town back where it was, before the firing of the police chief,” she said. “We need upgrades to housing and I want to bring new business into Pocomoke.”
Downing was the lone “nay” vote to remove Chief Kelvin Sewell from office last summer. A lawsuit has been filed in Maryland District Court disputing the firing. According to court documents, summons were executed on several parties at the end of March, including State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby, former Pocomoke City Manager Russell Blake and Orphan’s Court Chief Judge Dale Smack, among several others.
Crofoot said Pocomoke City government is independent from the local Board of Election Supervisors and has its own counsel, Bill Hudson of Pocomoke City. Hudson could not be reached for comment.
“The election board will make the determination on the outcome of the election and decide the next step,” Crofoot said.
However, Crofoot said he was privy to some details.
“One candidate prevailed by nine votes from the machines and six from absentee ballots,” he said.
Crofoot said the elections were conducted on old-style mechanical machines operated by pulling a lever in order to cast a vote.
“I’m speculating, but maybe the lever wasn’t pushed all the way down, or the citizen decided not to vote, pushed the lever and the curtain opened,” he said.
As of Wednesday morning and press time, no winner had been declared in an election where 132 total votes were cast. The problem, according to City Manager and City Attorney Ernie Crofoot, is only 127 votes were counted.
Incumbent George Tasker faced Sheila Nelson for the District 1 seat, while Diane Downing, who works for Worcester County, secured her third term in office representing District 2.
“I’d like to get the town back where it was, before the firing of the police chief,” she said. “We need upgrades to housing and I want to bring new business into Pocomoke.”
Downing was the lone “nay” vote to remove Chief Kelvin Sewell from office last summer. A lawsuit has been filed in Maryland District Court disputing the firing. According to court documents, summons were executed on several parties at the end of March, including State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby, former Pocomoke City Manager Russell Blake and Orphan’s Court Chief Judge Dale Smack, among several others.
Crofoot said Pocomoke City government is independent from the local Board of Election Supervisors and has its own counsel, Bill Hudson of Pocomoke City. Hudson could not be reached for comment.
“The election board will make the determination on the outcome of the election and decide the next step,” Crofoot said.
However, Crofoot said he was privy to some details.
“One candidate prevailed by nine votes from the machines and six from absentee ballots,” he said.
Crofoot said the elections were conducted on old-style mechanical machines operated by pulling a lever in order to cast a vote.
“I’m speculating, but maybe the lever wasn’t pushed all the way down, or the citizen decided not to vote, pushed the lever and the curtain opened,” he said.