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Mount Rainier and Cottage City both have new faces on their legislative bodies following Monday's elections.

In Cottage City, newcomer Charles Payne III won Cottage City's at-large commission seat, and in Mount Rainier, newcomer Ivy R. Thompson won the Ward 2 council seat.

Cottage City has more than 400 registered voters, and 141 total ballots were cast in Monday's election, according to town clerk/treasurer Alice Shannon.

Payne won with 73 votes, beating out Richard Philip Cote, who had 51 votes, and former commissioner Anna Marie Angolia, who had 15.

Payne said his top priorities are to lower the town's real property tax rate, provide transportation for seniors and increase youth activities.

"I feel good. I just want to make sure, as a commission, that we can accomplish the goals that we set out for," he said.

Incumbent Commissioner Aileen McChesney (Ward 1) retained her seat in an uncontested race with 100 votes.

Three seats were up for grabs in Mount Rainier, where Thompson won her uncontested bid with 65 votes.

"I'm very excited and honored to have the opportunity," Thompson said. "I'm going to take it slow and look and see what's going on and where I can fit in things that are priorities to me, like programming for youth and adults, especially for the summer."

Incumbent Councilwoman Alta Morton won the Ward 1 council seat with 121 votes, beating out former Councilwoman Carol Gandee, who had 101 votes.

"I think everybody worked really hard. We all have a desire to service the city," Morton said. "I had a good opponent who was a great campaigner."

Incumbent Mayor Malinda Miles retained her seat in her uncontested run with 181 votes. Current Councilman Jimmy Tarlau (Ward 1) received 33 write-in votes for the mayoral seat.

Tarlau said he wasn't aware of any formal write-in campaign and supported Miles in her re-election bid. He said he would have declined the mayoral seat if he won through write-in.

"If I was going to run a campaign, I would have done a campaign to win," he said. "I wasn't interested in [the mayoral seat]."

Miles was unaware of any kind of write-in campaign until yesterday.

"It's interesting, that's for sure," Miles said. "It makes the race that much more interesting, that the residents made that decision."

Mount Rainier's chief election judge didn't return calls for comment on how many ballots were cast and the total number of registered voters in the city.

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.