Three Island residents have received enough write-in votes to have their names appear on the ballot for county commissioner in the Nov. 8 general election.
There were only three candidates on the ballot for the seven positions available — Donald Leopold, Christine Todd, and Richard Wharton. Todd got the most votes (2,418), but both Leopold (1,970) and Wharton (1,903) will also be on the November ballot.
Meanwhile, Tristan Israel of Tisbury, Doug Ruskin of West Tisbury, and James Klingensmith of West Tisbury received enough write-in votes, and all three have gone through what is described as an arduous process of sending in their paperwork to the state, they told The Times. That included accepting the nomination and overnighting the paperwork to the state, as well as filling out a 40-plus-page financial disclosure to the state Ethics Commission.
Debra O’Malley, a spokesperson for Secretary of State William Galvin, confirmed that’s the process. On Tuesday, she confirmed that all three had done their paperwork properly, and would appear on the November ballot.
“It’s a crazy process that they really only give you 24 hours from the election to get the acceptance form signed,” Israel said. “They told me they won’t take it by email; it has to be a wet signature.”
Israel received 210 votes, Ruskin garnered 156 (although six of the votes in Chilmark were for Doug Raskin), and Klingensmith squeaked in by getting 26 votes — one more than the 25 necessary. All three told The Times they campaigned for write-in votes on social media, through emails, or by asking voters in person to write them in.
Israel, who currently serves on the commission, said there was a snafu with his nomination papers. He failed to write Democratic on the application. “They disqualified it, as they should have,” Israel said.
Meanwhile, both Ruskin and Klingensmith decided too late in the process to run for the county seats in the primary. “I would have had to apply in March to get on the ballot,” Ruskin said. “I was asked way back then. It was bad timing, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it.”
When Leon Brathwaite decided not to run for re-election, Klingensmith said, the commissioner let him know, but it was already too late in the process.
It’s unclear what will happen with the seventh position on the commission. The Times reached out to two county officials who didn’t have immediate answers on that.
