Moderately MOCO has called all six contested district seats on the Montgomery County Council, based on unofficial State Board of Elections results as of 10:31 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. Julie Yang won District 1 and Jud Ashman won District 3, the two open seats. Incumbents Marilyn Balcombe (District 2), Kristin Mink (District 5), Natali Fani-González (District 6) and Dawn Luedtke (District 7) kept their seats.
In each district, the winner’s lead is larger than the number of mail-in ballots left to count there as of 6 p.m. Nov. 2, according to the State Board of Elections’ ballots-left-to-count report. Results are unofficial until every ballot is counted and the county certifies them.
Seven of the Council’s 11 members are elected by the voters of their own districts, under Section 102 of the county charter. Full results are on the State Board of Elections’ Montgomery County results page.
Results, seat by seat
Party labels: (D) Democrat, (R) Republican. “Incumbent” means the candidate holds that seat now, according to the Council’s website.
- District 1: Julie Yang (D) vs. Reardon “Sully” Sullivan (R). Open seat. Yang won with 79.17%, unofficial results show.
- District 2: Marilyn Balcombe (D, incumbent) is the lone name printed on the ballot. Arian Borghei (R) and Joseph Abdalla are registered write-in candidates. Balcombe won with 96.37%, unofficial results show.
- District 3: Jud Ashman (D) vs. Ricky Fai Mui (R). Open seat. Ashman won with 84.02%, unofficial results show.
- District 5: Kristin Mink (D, incumbent) vs. Josephine Salazar (R). Mink won with 84.4%, unofficial results show.
- District 6: Natali Fani-González (D, incumbent) vs. Louella Tham (R). Fani-González won with 81.86%, unofficial results show.
- District 7: Dawn Luedtke (D, incumbent) vs. Harold Maldonado (R). Luedtke won with 73.42%, unofficial results show.
In District 4, Kate Stewart (D, incumbent) had no opponent on the ballot; she is in our list of candidates elected unopposed.
The two open seats
Councilmembers Andrew Friedson (District 1) and Sidney Katz (District 3) are not on the Nov. 3 Council ballot, so both districts will have new members. Friedson ran for County Executive in the June primary, according to official primary results.
Yang holds the District 3 seat on the Board of Education, according to the school board’s member page. Ashman is the mayor of Gaithersburg, and the City Council has conditionally picked Lisa Henderson as mayor if he wins, Moderately MOCO reported.
Councilmembers serve four-year terms, and the current Council’s term ends at noon on Monday, Dec. 7, according to the Council’s website. Results for the four at-large seats are in our at-large Council results story.
What’s still to count
The Montgomery County Board of Elections resumes counting Thursday, Nov. 5, then counts Nov. 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to its canvass schedule. Each session is livestreamed. The board says the dates are subject to change.
Provisional ballots are counted at a later canvass. A mail-in ballot postmarked by Nov. 3 still counts if it is received by 10 a.m. Nov. 13, under state regulations. Results for every county race are in our live results page.
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