This Morning at the BOE

It isn't over until it's over, and now it's over. This morning at the Board of Elections, Gossips witnessed the hand count of ballots from the Fifth Ward, carried out by the two commissioners of elections, Ken Dow (Democrat) and Kelly Miller-Simmons (Republican). The absentee ballots, the ballots from each of the nine days of early voting, and the ballots cast on Election Day were counted and tallied, and results remain the same. 

Rebecca Borrer        53

Dominic Merante    56

Vicky Daskaloudi     75

Mark Bodnar            31

 

Daskaloudi and Merante will be the Democratic candidates for Fifth Ward aldermen. Borrer will appear on the ballot as the Working Families Party candidate.

While things now seem settled in the Fifth Ward, where, in the Democratic primary, four candidates vied for two slots, that is not the case in the Third Ward or the First Ward. After the designating petitions were submitted in March, each of those two wards had only two candidates, both Democrats: Calvin Lewis and Ryan Wallace in the Third Ward; and Art Frick and Gary Purnhagen in the First Ward. With no competition, their victories were assured.

Since then, Lewis has taken a job with the City as assistant director of the Youth Department and was persuaded to resign as alderman to avoid conflict of interest. Presumably, the same conflict of interest that moved him to resign will cause him to refuse to be sworn in for a new term if he is elected in November, and the only thing that would prevent him from being elected is if someone in the Third Ward launched a strong write-in campaign. A similar situation may be developing in the First Ward. There is a rumor that Purnhagen plans to withdraw from the race.

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