I apologize for the quality of the picture, but am amused to see this poster around town, as we near the November election. Janeese Lewis George , the Democratic nominee, will probably get 90% of the votes cast for mayor of the District of Columbia. There is no Republican candidate. The Green Party has a candidate, Robert Gross, and there is one Independent who will be listed on the ballot, Rhonda Hamilton. I know nothing about Gross or Hamilton.

I also know nothing about Muhammad. He does have a website, and he comes across as a nice and serious kind of guy, but not with the qualifications you would want in a mayor. And of course, he will not be the mayor. But what interests me is that he thinks that anyone (other than his only son, perhaps – he is divorced) is going to be able to (1) remember his name and (2) spell it correctly to write in a vote for him. Okay, if your name is John Doe or Jane Doe or Jack Jones or something, but …. Talib Karim Muhammad? And I assume that one misplaced letter, and your vote is thrown out.

Voting in DC is not like voting anywhere else, especially in a mid-year election. Because we are a one party city, the mayoral election is not competitive, nor are most others. We are voting to replace DC (non-voting) Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and will elect Democrat Robert White over the Republican and Green candidates. For chair of the DC City Council, Phil Mendelson will win his 4th or 5th election as chair; he has been on the Council for over 25 years. His Republican opponent is Abi-Ananiah Prudent. I don’t know anything about her (and I bet the vast majority of DC residents couldn’t tell you if she is male or female), but I see that “with a passion for making Christ’s name known among government leaders,…..Abi-Ananiah has united Bible believing Christians in prayer for those on both sides of the aisle”. (This quote is from her description on the Concerned Women for America website.) Yes, it’s the good old DC Republican Party in action. Talib Karim Muhammad, by the way, is a long term DC resident, who has two degrees from Howard. Prudent moved to DC last year from Tennessee. Her only degree is from Liberty University.

Okay, so we know that Lewis George will be the next mayor, Robert White the next non-voting Congressional delegate, and Phil Mendelson will continue to chair the City Council.

The Council itself is made up of one chair, eight ward representatives and four at large representatives. We live in Ward Three and incumbent Matt Frumin has no opponent, so unless people write in my name, he is sure to be reelected.

But of the four at large seats, two are open. And this is where things get complicated. Beyond complicated. See if you understand this:

In previous elections, you would have a list of candidates, and voters would be instructed on the ballots to vote for two from the list to fill the two open slots. Easy, peasy.

But not now. Now, for the first time in a general election, DC has ranked voting. And for reasons that are unclear to me (but I am sure there must be reasons), rather than having the two positions be on the ballot separately (and I guess they never had been separated before, but before it made no difference), both positions are lumped together. There are four named candidates, and there is a place for one (only one) write in vote.

The idea is that the two winning candidates will be the two council members, but this is only an idea. THE BALLOT NOWHERE TELLS THE VOTERS THAT THEY ARE VOTING FOR TWO PEOPLE!!! The heading is “At-Large Member…..”, not “At-Large Members……”. You are told you have five choices, but you don’t know, unless you know (which most won’t) that you are voting for two winning candidates, rather than one. I think this is a fatal flaw. And this is not what is supposed to be meant as a “secret ballot”.

There is another complication. By law, two of the four at-large members must not be members of the “majority party”. Forget for a moment, how the “majority party” is determined; take it from me, the majority party is the Democratic Party. One of the continuing at-large members, Christina Henderson is an Independent. So is Elissa Silverman, a current member running for reelection.

The four candidates (in the order printed on the ballot – which I believe are still done by lottery) for the two (not defined as two, but yes, two) positions are: Oye Owolewa, Democrat; Darry Moch, Green; Darrell Green, Republican; Elissa Silverman, Independent.

Digression: As an aside, Owolewa’s full name is Adeoye Ibrahim Yakubu-Owolewa (but you can call him Oye). End of unnecessary digression.

It is certain that Owolewa, the only Democrat (okay, so Elissa is a Democrat, but she can’t run that way – that’s another issue for another day) will win one of the seats. But, under the way ranked voting works, if you vote for the winner as your first choice, none of your other choices count at all. That means, for all practical purposes, that Elissa Silverman, last on the ballot and down as an Independent, must receive more first places votes than either Moch or Green (or any write in). If Owolewa gets so many votes, that the remaining votes go largely to the Republican Party candidate or the Green Party candidate, Silverman will be out. In other words, if the 90% of the voters who vote Democratic vote for Owolewa first, and Silverman second, and 10% of the voters vote for Green or Moch, the winner will be Green or Moch, each of whom will receive far fewer votes than Silverman. And that is because the two positions are being thrown together on the ballot, with no explanation or attention being paid to this, combined with the complications of ranked choice voting and the legal requirement that two at large seats be held by persons not affiliated with the majority party.

I know you probably didn’t understand it, but read it again until you do (if you are a DC voter). And yes, there is another complication in that Green the candidate is not running on the ticket of Green the party, but that is the least of our problems.

There are a few other things on the ballot. Brian Schwalb will be reelected attorney general; his opposition is a Republican no one knows, and everyone knows Schwalb has done a fine job. We also elect a Shadow Senator and a Shadow Congressman – I don’t cast a vote in those silly positions which are unpaid and, as far as I can tell, have never accomplished a thing. And then there are two Ward Three candidates for the State Board of Education, another set of positions I don’t vote for since the Board of Education, once a board with power, has some time ago been changed into a board with only a voice and usually no microphone to allow that voice even to be heard.

There is one initiative on the ballot – basically an anti foie gras measure. No more force feeding geese or ducks. I think it will pass easily.

One more overall question. The printed ballots, under each position, have room for one write in candidate. That is fine when the voter can only vote for one candidate. But where, in the case of at-large Council membership, there are two positions to be filled, shouldn’t there be two spots for write in votes. I assume there is no way to write in a spot for a second write in vote. Another flaw.

So, who knows what all of this confusion will really mean. I think it caught everyone by surprise and I expect there will be some changes to the law that will permit some changes to the ballots by 2028. We shall see (I say that a lot).