In one of the closest elections in recent memory, D.C. residents will have to wait weeks to learn who will be their Democratic nominee for an at-large council seat. But even then, nothing is guaranteed.
After a long primary night on Tuesday, incumbent Vincent Orange and challenger Sekou Biddle were separated in the unofficial count by just 543 votes, 21,237 to 20,694. Now it will take two weeks for provisional and absentee ballots to be tallied and the final results audited.
An automatic recount will be triggered after the scheduled April 18 certification if the vote margin is less than 1 percent of the total votes cast. But if it holds at its current margin of 1.02 percent, a challenge would have to be filed within seven days of certification, according to D.C. law.
| The unofficial tally | |||||
| Incumbents lead in all races | |||||
| Ward 2 | Ward 4 | Ward 7 | Ward 8 | At-large | |
| Leader | Jack Evans | Muriel Bowser | Yvette Alexander | Marion Barry | Vincent Orange |
| 80.4% | 65.4% | 41.9% | 72.6% | 39.8% | |
| 2nd place | n/a | Renee Bowser | Tom Brown | Jacque Patterson | Sekou Biddle |
| 13.2% | 22.5% | 8.5% | 38.8% | ||
| Source: D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics | |||||
With a slim lead, incumbent Orange didn’t declare victory Wednesday as at least 1,970 remaining ballots have yet to be counted. Neither he nor Biddle would say whether they would ask for a recount if the votes didn’t fall in their favor, but political consultant Tom Lindenfeld predicted a recount is sure to come.
Orange told The Washington Examiner that he was “confident we’ll secure a victory on Friday the 13th,” the date the official election results are announced.
Biddle said he had expected a close election but not a prolonged wait.
“We had the sense we wouldn’t know the outcome before the evening was over but I think it didn’t occur to most people that it would be over several days or weeks,” he said.
Many observers had correctly predicted the at-large race would be the tightest, as other incumbents cruised to their nominations Tuesday even as the image of the council has suffered under the weight of political corruption allegations.
Lindenfeld said Orange’s recent admission that some donations to his prior campaign may have been questionable had weakened him enough for a challenger to have a shot — but even then, it’s just barely.
Those disenchanted with the council said the city’s election rules make it too easy for incumbents to win by default because it doesn’t require a runoff election when no candidate scores a voter majority.
“In other jurisdictions, you wouldn’t see someone win with 40 percent or less,” said Dave Stroup, a commentator on the progressive blog Greater Greater Washington. “It is quite easy, especially on the ward level, for multiple candidates to get on the ballot and then peel off votes.”
