Aaron Knights didn’t have many people to thank after winning his election as a Ward 5 advisory neighborhood commissioner. His write-in candidacy, after all, generated a mere nine votes.
“That is sad but true, that there was no one in 5C-05 who decided early on that they wanted to run,” said Knights, a 2 1/2-year resident of the Eckington neighborhood. “That I got nine votes and won is not necessarily a good thing.”
But Knights, one of nine Washingtonians to win an ANC single-member district seat with 10 or fewer write-in votes, is dedicated nevertheless to his volunteer position, where he will serve as a voice for 2,000 residents and hold sway over zoning variances, liquor license applications and other material issues. He was recruited to run by neighbors one week before the election. His campaign consisted of a couple of posts to community listserves.
“The neighborhood, while it shows a lot of promise, it’s somewhat untouched by development and to the extent that that’s going to change, I’d like to have a hand in it,” Knights said.
Of the 44 single-member districts with no names on the Nov. 7 ballot — out of 286 total — 34 will apparently be represented by write-in victors. Some hopefuls filed as candidates before the election, while others accepted the seats only after the votes were counted. In 8E-06, for example, in the Washington Highland neighborhood, former ANC Commissioner Wanda Lockridge hadn’t considered serving again. She only accepted after two people — one her neighbor, the other unknown — selected her for the position.
“People said they wanted Wanda back, so Wanda’s back,” said Lockridge, also the former chair of the D.C. State Democratic Committee.
In 7C-06, Thomas Alston won with four votes. In 5C-11, Allison Defoe defeated Wiliam Edwards by a final count of 9-2. In 2F-05, current commissioner Sandra Biasillo held onto her seat with eight write-ins.
In Anacostia’s 8A-05, according to pre-certified results, Paul Kearney won with 10 write-in votes to Carolyn Bridges-Ward’s nine.
