Former Prince George’s County legislative aide Andrea Fletcher Harrison narrowly defeated Edmonston Mayor Adam Ortiz in a special primary election Tuesday for the County Council, clearing the way for the candidate to join the legislative group through 2010.
As 56 absentee and provisional ballots were tallied today, Harrison, who served as policy director for former County Councilman David Harrington, held a 4.3 percent lead of 137 votes over the union-backed mayor. Late absentee and overseas ballots will be counted April 11 if any are received. The other votes are not expected to change the results, said Elections Director Alisha Alexander
‘‘I thought it would be close, but I expected to pull it out,” Harrison said when reached at her home on election night. ‘‘This is the most relaxed I’ve been in five weeks.”
Ortiz, who gathered with supporters at the United Food and Commercial Workers union hall in New Carrollton Tuesday night, stayed away from the crowd except to say results were too close to call as he thanked volunteers.
‘‘We knocked on 5,000 doors in this district. No other campaign came close,” he said. ‘‘We focused on the people because our mission is to serve the people.”
The daughter of former County Councilman James Fletcher, Harrison ran on a campaign touting her familiarity with the district and issues. Her base was out in force at Springdale’s Charles H. Flowers High School on primary day, where voters came by to hug Harrison before going in to cast their ballots, walking past Ortiz, other candidates and their supporters.
‘‘Andrea! You’ve got this one!” a Harrison fan shouted as she drove away in a mini-van.
The race came down to the wire on election night. At one point, 26 votes separated Harrison and Ortiz, a state auditor who ran with support from many progressive groups in the county and local labor unions.
Alexander said results were delayed when a chief judge’s car broke down on the way to the Upper Marlboro office, leaving everyone to wait until 11:50 p.m. for the last polling place results. The judge was posted at Flowers, one of the busier precincts located next to Harrison’s Springdale home.
Judges at 17 of the 25 sites sent in their voting data electronically, providing instant results before bringing the computer cards in for a final check. Others trucked the memory cards from the electronic voting machines to the elections office directly.
‘‘They use their own judgment,” said Alexander, who said some of the people may not have been able to send the results electronically. ‘‘These are volunteers that are committed to making sure the election process goes smoothly.”
Tampering with the memory cards is not likely. The Diebold voting machines log every change made to their memory cards, and can be compared against results tallied on site after polls close, a company spokesman said.
‘‘The first thing workers do when the polls close is run a results tape,” said Chris Riggall, spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, the company that handles the machines. ‘‘[To check] you not only have a paper printout, but you could download the results from the computers again.”
The election was held to replace former council Chairman Harrington of Cheverly, who was appointed to the state Senate in February. District 5 includes Bladensburg, Cheverly, Colmar Manor, Edmonston, Landover, Lanham and portions of Mitchellville.
Turnout among the district’s 40,100 registered Democrat voters was extremely low—8 percent voted. Harrison appeared to have won with 1,185 votes, about 37.4 percent of the 3,181 total ballots. Ortiz placed a close second with 1,048 votes, or 33 percent. Teacher and activist Theresa Mitchell Dudley placed third with 448 ballots.
Adrion Howell, a former County Council liaison for County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), placed fourth with 405 votes. Remaining candidates included nurse Sherry James-Strother, businessman Melvin Johnson and security company owner Derrick Parks, who each took 28, 27 and 26 votes, respectively.
The results do not include absentee ballots and provisional ballots given to people who turned out but were not on voter rolls.
Low turnout came in part from the short time period of the campaign, candidates said. County Council members called the special primary in February after Harrington was named to the state Senate seat left by Gwendolyn Britt, who died of heart failure in late January.
Harrison is favored to win the seat in a special general election May 6, when she will face Republican Steven W. Johnson of Cheverly. Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans in the county. In addition to serving the last two years of Harrington’s four-year term, the new council member will be eligible to run in 2010 and again in 2014.
Education, economic development and public safety topped the platforms for all candidates in the special election, but the main differences came over endorsements and support.
Harrison, who ran with support from the political establishment, including Sen. Nathaniel Exum, had a familiarity that won over supporters like Yvonne Smith.
‘‘She lives in the area. She comes from a family tradition,” Smith said after voting. ‘‘You just want to go with someone you trust.”
But Ortiz’s supporters said he’s become a new leader in the county since taking over in Edmonston in 2005.
‘‘Adam has just been a fixture since he’s been here. He just stood out from the crowd,” said supporter Christa Beverly. ‘‘As he spreads out more, he’ll be a really big influence in the county in general.”
Dudley ran on a platform claiming to be the candidate ‘‘unbossed and unbought.” She has run five times for the seat since 1994. Joined by fellow teachers and students at her campaign party, she pledged to remain politically active.
‘‘The issue for me is not that Theresa Dudley won,” she said. ‘‘The issue is how we are going to improve the quality of life for our residents. We’ve got to do some real pushing to make it better.”
Staff Writer Natalie McGill contributed to this story.
E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.
