Aberdeen voters seemed poised to break the turnout record Tuesday in an election many have called the most negative and divisive in a decade.
Nearly 1,800 people had cast their ballots as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, putting turnout on a pace to pass the last election?s record 2,200 voters.
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“The last time we had 30 percent, and for a municipal election that was a record,” incumbent City Councilman Dave Yensan said.
While a high turnout doesn?t always favor the incumbents, Yensan said he was pleased to see so many voters.
“If we get 40 percent, no matter who gets in, then it?s at least the will of 40 percent of the people,” he said.
Some credited the high turnout to a campaign where a handful of hot-button issues put many candidates on defense, warding off negative mailers and near-constant accusations of dirty tricks ranging from twisted slogans to lawsuits.
“Sometimes you have to be straightforward,” said Zenobia Todd, a recent transplant to Aberdeen from Ohio who marveled at the attacks that flew during the campaign. “You want to win, but how far areyou willing to go?”
Avery Ward, a Harford Community College professor, said the negativity and high turnout could be linked to the big issues at stake in Aberdeen: crime, aging infrastructure, water shortages and tension over whether to expand the city and develop the Wetlands Golf Course, just beyond city limits.
Observers say the last local election as contentious as this one came in 1998, when County Executive Jim Harkins ran against Art Helton, a Darlington-based property rehabilitator who has backed several candidates in the Aberdeen election.
Helton cruised past the park where many of the candidates campaigned outside Aberdeen Senior Center on Tuesday, shuttling people to vote and checking on his own exit polls, which put his endorsed candidate for mayor, former state trooper Mike Bennett, ahead as of late afternoon.
