Howard County’s school board race remains too close to call among the top four candidates for three open seats, leaving one candidate blaming the closeness on negative campaigning.
“The race was good right up until the end,” said home school teacher Diane Butler, who is separated from Allen Dyer, a lawyer and computer consultant, by only about 1,000 votes.
She said Dyer and his volunteers distributed literature about her in the Columbia area, which she said negatively portrayed her as a home school teacher who just wanted to teach creationism and religion in schools.
“The damage is done. And that’s where the closeness comes from,” she said.
“I don’t think politics should be done this way. I did well and ran an honest race.”
However, Dyer said the information was legitimate and came from a questionnaire sent to the candidates by Democracy for Howard County, which endorsed him and incumbent Ellen Flynn Giles, not Butler.
Dyer defended these “literature drops,” saying he had a right to educate the public about all the candidates’ views; however, he said he regretted that the information appeared to have offended her this much.
“All I did was distribute a complete set of question and answers,” he said. “They’re not edited and not out of context.”
One of the disputed questions asked candidates whether they supported or opposed “the teaching of creationism or what is called ‘Intelligent Design’ as part of the curriculum in county schools,” according to the questionnaire Dyer sent to The Examiner from Democracy for Howard County.
Butler responded: “I believe ‘Intelligent Design’ should be taught as a different theory than ‘evolution.’ In science we have many subjects that are taught theoretically, and I believe all sides should be offered to allow students to make up their own minds.”
Despite the campaigning, Butler said she’s waiting for all the votes to be counted, because she still has a chance for a spot on the board.
“It really is too close to call,” said Betty Nordaas, president of the Howard County Board of Elections.
“We’ve got more than 10,000 absentee ballots left, and that’s a huge amount when you look at the closeness of this race.”
Officials are working on counting additional provisional ballots.
Giles and fellow incumbent Janet Siddiqui remain comfortably in the lead, but they acknowledged votes still needed to be counted.
“These are unofficial results,” Giles said. “But for me, I am pleased where I am now.”
“I’m glad to [leave] the campaigning behind so we can just move forward and get back into the swing of things,” Siddiqui said.
All election results are final Nov. 14, election officials said.
RACE RESULTS
Breakdown of the results for three Howard school board seats from among a pool of six non-partisan candidates:
Diane Butler 48,743
Allen Dyer 49,766
Ellen Flynn Giles 52,412
Betsy Grater 31,707
Janet Siddiqui 56,521
Di Zou 19,720
Source: Maryland State Board of Elections
