The Prince George’s County Council in Maryland has been a member short since at-large member Mel Franklin abruptly left in June, a couple of weeks before he was indicted for campaign finance violations.
After District 5 Council member Jolene Ivey won the special primary for that at-large seat, a vacancy figures to extend well into 2025 if she wins the general election in November. That would open up the seat she currently represents.
At the same time, the county could also be looking at a special election for county executive, depending on how the current executive, Angela Alsobrooks, fares in the race for an open U.S. Senate seat this November. If she wins and resigns by Dec. 2, that would trigger another special election in the county, which, depending on the results, could lead to yet another special election after that.
This process could happen since multiple members of the council are interested in succeeding Alsobrooks, should she prevail. However, if she wins but chooses to remain in office beyond the Dec. 2 deadline, the county council would appoint a sitting council member to become the new county executive. If nobody receives a six-vote majority within two weeks, the council chair becomes the county executive.
It all depends on if there’s more than two years left in the term whenever she resigns her seat.
For any vacancies on the county council, a special election is held if there’s more than one year left in the term. With less than a year left, the council appoints someone to finish that term.
All those special elections cost money — often millions of dollars for primary and general elections that sometimes only draw a few thousand voters. It adds up pretty fast for a county already struggling with bleak finances.
On Tuesday, a series of competing bills aimed to bring the county in line with what the state’s Board of Elections needs to conduct an election, and potentially cut down the long wait to fill a vacancy.
“I’m sick of these special elections,” said District 1 Council member Thomas Dernoga, the lead sponsor of two of the bills introduced on Tuesday. “We’re going to have to do them, but let’s do them efficiently and save time, money and wear and tear.”
His proposal is to speed up the process by getting rid of special primary elections and let everyone run in one general election instead.
“All our generals are either uncontested or very lightly contested, and we’re spending millions and millions of dollars for elections that don’t serve any significant purpose,” Dernoga argued. “And it also is consuming tremendous resources from the Board of Elections’ staff.”
Residents temporarily overseas — whether because of military service or something else — are required to get their ballots through international mail, fill them out and then send them back in time to be counted. This means the Board of Elections will need months, not days or weeks, to handle that aspect of an election.
With the various openings that could come in the shuffling of various races, Dernoga argued it makes no sense to keep to an outdated status quo.
“We literally could be running elections constantly between now and November of 2026. So to save money and to save on the staff and to get these elections quicker, I’m proposing that we drop the primary and just go straight to a general election where all candidates are allowed to participate,” he said. “Independents, Republicans, Democrats, Green Party, Libertarian, anybody that wants in, can run the one-level, one-stage election.”
Cosponsors of Dernoga’s bill include Council members Wala Blegay, Ed Burroughs, and Calvin Hawkins, who is expected to run for county executive if Alsobrooks wins in November.
“The citizens are fatigued — voter fatigue,” said Hawkins. “They’re worried about the money we’re spending on these special elections. So we’re trying to do something that’s practical, prudent and fair.”
The other two emergency bills dealing with special elections are being sponsored by Council members Wanika Fisher and Ingrid Watson. They would also mandate a 100 day window for special elections, but would also continue with a primary election first, meaning some offices would stay open for over 200 days between the time someone left and the time their replacement was certified.
Dernoga said if that bill passed and Alsobrooks won and chose to resign her seat as county executive so there would be a special election instead of an appointment by the council, the seat would be open, too.
“Two hundred days from Dec. 1 takes you out into mid-June of next year, and then you have to wait for certification before you’re official, so you have to wait a couple weeks for that,” said Dernoga. “So … just before July … the new county executive would have nothing to do with the budget coming out.”
That’s an outcome he described as crazy.
All the special election related bills were introduced as emergency legislation so they would take place immediately if they pass, meaning subsequent special elections for the District 5 seat, and potentially the county executive seat, would be covered by the new proposals. Eight votes are required for passage.
