Local Elections

Courtesy of Montgomery Advertiser

While national and state elections tend to dominate national headlines, just as important if not more so, are our local Montgomery County elections. During the primary elections in June, thousands of Montgomery County voters chose out of a multitude of qualified candidates and cast their vote for county councilmembers, the county executive, state’s attorney, sheriff and the Board of Education members.

For Montgomery County Executive, Marc Elrich led the Democratic ballot with 34,729 votes, which was 29.2% of the population, just edging out David Blair, who came second with 28.9% of the total Democrat votes. The Republican candidate ran unopposed and Robin Ficker came in with 11,178 votes.

Out of a staggering 36 candidates for Democrat Montgomery County Council at large, (voters were allowed to vote for four candidates) the top four are Hans Riemer with 50,205 votes (13.0%), Will Jawando with 40,398 votes (10.6%), Evan Glass with 32,712 votes (8.7%), and Gabe Albornoz with 30,229 votes (8.3%). As for the Republican party, the top four are Robert Dyer with 11,274 votes (26.4%), Shelly Skolnick with 10,573 votes (24.8%), Penny Musser with 10,546 votes (24.7%), and Chris P. Fiotes Jr. with 10,251 votes (24.0%).

As for the District elections, Andrew Friedson received the Democratic nomination in District 1, winning 8,488 votes (28.2%). District 1 had the most candidates out of all the districts, with 8 possible candidates. The Republican District 1 race went to Richard Banach with 2,817 votes, which was 100% of the Republican vote. For District 2, incumbent Craig L. Rice won with 10,777 votes, a staggering majority of 73.5% of the vote. District 2 had thre Republican candidates, the only district with more Republican candidates than democratic, and coming in first was Ed Amatetti with 1,639 votes (52.8%). In District 3, Democrat Sidney A. Katz received the nomination with 10,581 votes (52.5%), and for District 4, Democrat Nancy Navarro won with 16,908 votes (90.6%). For District 5, Tom Hucker won with 16,917 votes (69.0%).

John McCarthy ran unopposed as the State’s Attorney. As for Sheriff, each candidate claimed all the votes for their party, with Darren Mark Popkin winning 90,932 Democrat votes, and Jae Hwang winning 11,962 Republican votes. For the Board of Education At-Large Election, the top two, regardless of party, proceed to the general election. The top two out of eight candidates were Julie Reiley with 35,609 votes (32.6%) and Karla Silvestre with 31,811 votes (29.4%).

Similarly, the District 3 Board of Education Election have the top two candidates proceed to the general election, in a bipartisan manner. The District 3 top two candidates were Patricia O’Neill with 67,277 votes (60.2%) and Lynn Amano with 26,298 votes (23.5%).

On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, these candidates will be on the ballot for the general election. To all students over 18, don’t forget to register and exercise your right to vote, so you can help determine who of these candidates win!