First-timers, some-timers and voting veterans: How local candidates have voted over time
Before she was a two-term alderwoman from Ward 3, Rhonda Pindell-Charles was a Baltimore City prosecutor working late on election night in 1993. She rushed home to Parole to get in line before the polls closed but missed the deadline by minutes.
“I still think about it to this day. I wanted to kick myself in the butt,” said PindellCharles, who is running for a third term representing the ward.
Since failing to cast that ballot, PindellCharles voted in the next eleven city elections dating back to 1997. That’s second only to Sheila Finlayson, her Democratic colleague from Ward 4, who has cast ballots in the previous 12 city elections.
The 17 candidates who are seeking public office in the 2021 municipal elections have all begun knocking doors, shaking hands (or bumping fists) and asking voters to fill in the bubble next to their name when they fill out their ballot next month for the Sept. 21 primary.
Presumably, they’ll vote for themselves this time around. But how often have those candidates — two for mayor and 15 for eight City Council seats — cast ballots? To find out The Capital obtained their voting records dating back to 1994, the farthest back voting history records were readily accessible. Here’s what we found.
Newcomers
Some candidates will be casting their first or second ballot in a city election, either because they’re new to the city or have only recently become eligible to vote.
Keanuú Smith-Brown, a 25-year-old Democrat challenging Pindell-Charles in Ward 3, started voting in the 2016 Presidential primary. Though he has been a Ward 3 resident for most of his life, he wasn’t eligi
ble to vote in Annapolis in 2017 because he briefly lived in Baltimore, he said.
The other first-timers include Ward 5 Republican Monica Manthey, who moved to Annapolis in 2019. Ward 8 Democrat Kati George said she was eligible to vote in 2017 but health issues prevented her from getting to the polls and it was too late to request an absentee ballot.
Among the candidates voting in a second cycle include Scott Gibson, a Republican who will face Karma O’Neill in the general election to replace retiring Republican Alderman Fred Paone. Gibson bought a home in the ward in 2016 and voted in city elections the following year.
Democrat Brooks Schandelmeier has lived in Ward 5 since late 2013. He just missed out on the elections that year but voted in the 2017 elections and has participated in every presidential and gubernatorial election since 2014.
Ward 6 Alderman DaJuan Gay, the youngest candidate at 24, will be participating in his second city election.
Voting veterans
Most candidates have voted consistently, aside from a missed primary here and there, since 1994.
Incumbent Democrat Ross Arnett moved to the city in 2002 and has represented Eastport’s Ward 8 since 2007. He has voted in every city election since 2005 as well as the last 19 gubernatorial and presidential elections dating back to his arrival.
“It’s part of being an American,” Arnett said.
The Republican candidate in Ward 8, Rockford Toews, has lived in Annapolis since the early 1990s. Records show he first voted in the 1997 general election and again during the 2001 general, but didn’t vote in 2005 or in the 2007 special election that saw Arnett first claim his seat on the council. In 2009, the last time Toews ran for City Council, he told The Capital he thought he cast a ballot in both elections, saying, “As far as I know, I did participate.”
Since then, Toews is six for six voting in primary and general elections over the last three cycles. Toews has also voted in 25 of the last 28 federal and state elections dating back to 1994, records show. That’s good for third-most behind Finlayson and PindellCharles.
O’Neill, the Ward 2 Democrat, moved to the city in 1995 and was eligible to vote for the 1997 election, though records show she didn’t cast a vote that year. O’Neill said she couldn’t recall whether she voted in that election but couldn’t think of a reason why she wouldn’t have. She has had a perfect record in city elections since 2001 and has participated in all but two state and federal elections since 1996.
Mayor Gavin Buckley, the Australian-born restaurant owner, became a naturalized citizen in 2009. Records show he voted for the first time in the Annapolis general election that year, which resulted in a victory for Josh Cohen in the mayoral race.
Four years later, Buckley didn’t vote in the 2013 election cycle because he was in Australia at the time, he said. Buckley recalled requesting an absentee ballot but it never arrived. Cohen eventually lost to Republican Mike Pantelides.
Buckley’s 2021 general election opponent, Republican Steven Strawn, has voted in each of the last two city elections, but records show he didn’t cast a ballot in the 2009 race, which was the first time he was eligible to vote in the city after moving there in 2005. Strawn disputed the county’s records.
“I am a big stickler for voting. I vote in everything,” he said.
Gay’s Republican challenger George Gallagher has voted in the last two city election cycles — 2013 and 2017 — since he moved to the city in 2001. He has a consistent record of voting in state and federal elections, 11 for 11 since the 2012 presidential election that saw Barack Obama win a second term.
Rob Savidge, a Democrat running unopposed in Ward 7, has voted in every city general election since 2001. He’s also cast ballots in every Maryland general election since 2002.
In Ward 4, Finlayson is a perfect 11 for 11 participating in city primaries and generals dating back to 2001, including in the 2007 special election, in which she ran as a City Council candidate.
Toni Strong Pratt, Finlayson’s Democratic primary opponent, has participated in every presidential or gubernatorial general election since 2004. Records show she voted in the 2009 and 2017 city elections but didn’t vote in 2013. Strong Pratt said the records were incorrect and that she votes in every cycle.
“I vote every year,” she said. “I always vote.”