Unofficial results of tonight's special election: ANC 4B04 commissioner Doug Smith recalled

The results of the special election for the recall of ANC 4B04 commissioner Doug Smith are as follows: 75 votes in favor of the recall, 59 votes against it. Sixteen absentee ballots and eight special ballots still need to be counted; according to the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, a final count will be held on March 9, and certification is scheduled for March 13.

This means that Smith, who also serves as ANC 4B's treasurer, will have to win at least 17 of those 24 outstanding votes in order to keep his seat.

At the Metropolitan Police Department's Fourth District Headquarters, where the special election was held, Smith's supporters clustered together in one circle while supporters of the recall effort, most of whom are members of the civic group Concerned Citizens of Brightwood East, congregated in another. When the results were posted on the door of the police station's community room around 8:20 pm, both groups anxiously converged upon them, and neither group went away with a sense of satisfaction. Nobody wanted to wait ten more days for the official results, but such is the way of extremely close elections.

ANC 4B01 commissioner Sara Green was there to lend her support to Smith. Upon seeing the results, Smith offered to turn in his office key to Green, who is also ANC4B's chairperson, and told her that she should think about her next treasurer. She asked if he would consider running again should the recall become official; he said he would consider it but that he "really wasn't feeling it." A 4B04 resident chimed in with: "Think of it this way...at least you won't have to deal with these nasty people anymore."

For more background on the recall, see Behind the effort to recall ANC 4B04 commissioner Doug Smith.

ANC 4B04 residents: please don't forget to vote in the recall election today

The recall election that will determine the fate of ANC 4B04 commissioner Doug Smith is being held today at the Fourth District Police Headquarters, 6001 Georgia Avenue NW. The polls are open until 8:00 pm. Please stop by the station and cast your vote.

A brief history of efforts to recall Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners in the District of Columbia

The effort to recall ANC4B04 commissioner Doug Smith that is currently under way started me wondering how many commissioners have had similar efforts waged against them in the past, and how many commissioners have actually been successfully recalled due to those efforts.

Below is a spreadsheet provided to me by the DC Board of Elections and Ethics. It lists all ANC recall efforts that have been initiated since 1992 (why it only goes to 1992 I'm not exactly sure). Since that year, four Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners have been successfully recalled (their names are highlighted in yellow on the document).

According to the DCBOEE's recall process, residents of an SMD must gather the signatures of at least ten percent of the registered voters in the SMD (that means about 200 signatures, as each SMD has approximately 2,000 residents) before moving to the petition verification phase and, ultimately, the recall election itself.




ANC SMD Recall Efforts

Recall election for ANC4B04 commissioner Doug Smith will be held Feb. 28 at MPD 4D HQ

Did you know that there was a recall effort underway for 4B04 ANC commissioner Doug Smith?

Yeah, I really didn’t either. I first heard about it on November 23, when the DC Board of Elections and Ethics tweeted that recall petitions were being collected. I did a little more research and found that the effort has been underway since at least September (see the hearing transcript at the bottom of this post). The folks who have spearheaded the effort seem to be members of Concerned Citizens of Brightwood East.

This morning, the DCBOEE tweeted:



So there you go. Recall election on February 28.

Doug Smith is a good commissioner who got caught up in a storm, and that storm is called Walmart. I believe that the people who initiated the recall effort were upset that Smith hasn’t publicly come out in opposition of the development. The issue of will-Walmart-be-good-for-us-or-not has divided the neighborhood deeply, and it has put Smith in the difficult position of trying to represent all of his constituents fairly in the midst of the uproar.

But here's the thing: if the planned development at Georgia and Missouri doesn’t happen, it will be because Walmart decided to pull out. And that would be purely Walmart's decision, not based on community opposition, and definitely not on whether an ANC spoke out against it or not.

Smith has done nothing to deserve a recall. If you want to oust a politician, save your energy and work to oust one of the many in this city who actually have done things that warrant a recall.

UPDATE: Please read this newer post, Behind the effort to recall ANC 4B04 commissioner Doug Smith for more background on the issue.

Hearing on Approval of Petition to Recall Douglas Smith

Proposed redistricting of ANC4B

These are the recommendations that ANC4B will send to the Ward 4 Redistricting Task Force, which will meet on Wednesday, September 21. The redistricting would alter the boundaries of five Single Member Districts (4B01, 4B02, 4B03, 4B04, and 4B07) and would go into effect after the 2012 election.

ProposedANC4B_redistricting