Ellis wins state senate race
Arthur Ellis, Democratic nominee for the District 28 senate seat, won a decisive victory against his Republican challenger Bill Dotson in Tuesday’s election, winning 66 percent of the vote to Dotson’s 33.7 percent.
This was the first run for political office
by Ellis, an Air Force veteran, certified public accountant and a member of the Charles County NAACP Hall of Fame.
“I’m very humbled by the opportunity that’s been given to me by the residents of Charles County to serve them in
the state legislature,” Ellis told the Maryland Independent. “It’s amazing to have that kind of support.”
“Yesterday was beautiful,” he said, looking back on Election Day. “I know it sounds ironic because of the rain. The turnout was constant, and seeing people who were determined to come out and vote was beautiful. I’m a student of history, and this is democracy at its best. I just loved
it.”
The election of Ellis, along with current District 2 Commissioner Debra Davis (D) and the re-election of Del. Edith Patterson (D-Charles) and Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), gives Charles County its first ever all-African-American delegation to the General Assembly.
“It’s historic, not just because of the racial part, but also because you’re looking
at opportunities to get things done for change in Charles County,” Ellis said. “Major parts of Charles County are suburban now; the population has changed dramatically, and the needs have changed. This election is a major adaptation to those changes. I’m just happy to be a part of that.”
Ellis said that he has been working with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s) since his primary win in June to bring him up to speed on his new responsibilities. Ellis defeated six-term Sen. Thomas M. “Mac” Middleton (D-Charles) in an outcome few had foreseen given Middleton’s longevity and position as a long-time colleague of Miller’s. Miller himself won re-election by a similar margin to that of Ellis, winning 65.8 percent
of the vote.
Dotson, who had been counting on the popularity of Gov. Larry Hogan (R) to help boost Republicans in down-ballot races, said that he found the results “extremely discouraging.”
“What we don’t understand is why people who voted for Governor Hogan did not vote for me,” Dotson said. “We have days and weeks ahead to try and understand it.”
Dotson said that he believed his campaign had been instrumental in helping Hogan eke out a narrow victory in Charles County.
According to the unofficial final results issued by the Maryland Board of Elections, Hogan defeated Democratic nominee Ben Jealous by just 20 votes in the county.
“It’s historic that Governor Hogan won here,” Dotson said. “We’re elated that he won. I guess that a majority of people at the polls believed that a vote for a Republican was a vote for [President] Donald Trump.”
Dotson noted that a flyer late in the campaign linked Dotson to Trump. Dotson said that he has known Trump for around 30 years and has done business with him.
“We stood in front of a 100-foot wave,” Dotson said. “We threw money at it, we threw poll workers at it, and the wave got us.”
In the six-way race for District 28 state delegate, Davis, Patterson and Wilson each won an average of 23.3 percent of the vote. Republican challengers Dave Campbell and Jim Crawford each won 10.5
percent, while Maureen Woodruff won 9.3 percent.
Del. Elizabeth “Susie” Proctor (D-Charles, Prince George’s), who represents District 27A including Southern Prince George’s County as well as Waldorf, Bryantown and Hughesville in Charles County, ran unopposed and won 97 percent of the vote in her district.
Patterson, who serves on the education subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, said that people should not view the makeup of the delegation simply through the lens of race.
“When you look at the history of the General Assembly, we’ve had very few women legislators representing Charles County, and the fact is that there was no diversity for many years,” Patterson acknowledged. “But instead of looking at it as all African-American, [the delegation] is reflective of the county and where we as a county are moving.”
As chair of Charles County’s delegation to the State House, Patterson said she is excited to work with Ellis and Davis.
“They bring different assets to the team,” Patterson said. “I am very excited because they are both very committed to Charles County citizens.”
Patterson said that she will encourage the delegation to focus on reaching out more to county residents to inform them about upcoming bills, meetings and opportunities to testify.
“This session, there will be a few controversial bills, as well as bills that we left unfinished in the last session,” Patterson said, including a proposed minimum hourly wage increase to $15 and an extension of veterans benefits. “Last year there were 3,000 bills proposed. That’s an astronomical number, and we weren’t able to get through all of them. Many of them will be coming back.”
Turnout in Charles County follows state average; ballot shortage reported in Brandywine
Nikki Charlson, deputy administrator at the Maryland State Board of Elections, told the Maryland Independent that voter turnout in Charles County during early voting and on Election Day was 55 percent of eligible voters.
That turnout aligned closely with the state average, which was 54.5 percent, according to Charlson.
According to news reports and social media, the polling station at Brandywine Elementary School ran out of ballots and more had to be shipped there, causing some people to have to wait in line for several hours in order to vote.
Charlson said that as of press time, the State Board of Elections was still awaiting details from the Prince George’s County Board of Elections on the ballot shortage and its effects on voter turnout.
Brandywine Elementary School is in Proctor’s district. Polling stations in three other precincts in Prince George’s County also ran out of ballots late Tuesday.
Absentee ballots will be counted on Thursday, Nov. 8, and provisional ballots will be counted starting next Wednesday.