Special election to fill Jack Evans' seat will cost city $200K
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On June 2nd, voters will have to narrow down the candidates for the Ward 2 council seat, in a primary election.
They’ll also have to decide who will finish out Councilman Jack Evans’ term for the rest of the year – in a special election on June 16th.
“We decided not to hold the election the same day for a variety of reasons. One is, we were considering our voters to minimize confusion,” said Board of Elections spokeswoman LaDawne White.
The special election to fill Evans’ seat in the interim, will cost the city roughly $200,000.
“That cost includes, the ballot, covering the cost of covering our elections and also voting equipment,” White said.
Evans’ resignation will be effective, starting on Friday. It comes after the council recommended his expulsion over ethics violations.
“It’s worth $200k to restore integrity to the D.C. government. To get somebody in there that we can trust,” Ward 2 resident Adam Eidinger said.
Although Eidinger supports the special election, he believes the timeline is all wrong.
“We should be having this special election sometime in March or April. We shouldn’t be....without a councilmember all the way into the middle of the summer. I’m really disappointed,” he said.
With the primary and the special election two weeks apart, voters may choose two different candidates.
So far, all the candidates running in the special election are also running in the primary.
“I’m outraged and I really think the council should pass emergency legislation and move the election up,” Eidinger said.
The law allows for Jack Evans to run in both elections again.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” said Evans in a phone call with ABC7 News on Wednesday.
