Snipper wins Takoma Park Ward 5 runoff electionBy Agnes Jasinski
Published January 31st 2007 in Gazette.Net
�I really feel the ward was very well-served in this election,� said Snipper after unofficial election results were reported around 10 p.m. Tuesday night. Results will be made official at a special meeting of the Takoma Park City Council 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
�There were a lot of residents who came out to vote... more than anyone imagined,� he said.
Of the two other candidates, Eric Hensal received 72 votes. Alexandra Quere Barrionuevo received 23. Snipper needed 102 to win a majority of the votes.
This was the first time the state of Maryland used instant runoff voting, allowing voters to rank candidates in order of choice. If Snipper did not receive a majority of the votes Tuesday night, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes would have been eliminated, and those voters� second choices would have been redistributed among the remaining candidates.
According to a poll of 76 voters by Takoma Park-based advocacy group FairVote, 88 percent of voters Tuesday afternoon found the method very easy or easy. More than 80 percent knew coming into the election that they would be asked to rank their choices, according to the informal survey.
�It was a fun introduction into instant runoff voting, because this election did have three candidates,� said Rob Richie, executive director of FairVote. �It affected how people thought about the race, and the meaning of the election.�
The idea of instant runoff voting was brought before the City Council by County Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At Large), the city�s former Ward 5 Councilman. Elrich's spot was open because he was elected in November to the Montgomery County Council.
More than 80 percent of voters in the city�s last election in 2005 expressed interest in passing a measure approving the new method.
�This was a historic election,� said Takoma Park Mayor Kathy Porter. �I think it went off without a hitch.�
Snipper will be sworn in at the Feb. 12 City Council meeting. His immediate concerns will come from a notebook of comments made by Ward 5 residents during his door-to-door campaign: the cost of the gym, the future of the hospital and trash in Sligo Creek, to name a handful.
�His impetus to run was that he wanted to become more engaged with the community,� said Snipper�s 21-year-old son, Gabriel Morden-Snipper.
�He�s still going to take the trash out tonight,� added Snipper�s wife, Cheryl Morden.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.