Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?
The idea it to make sure candidates come from all over the county - not just Takoma Park - yet still represent the entire county. It reduces the likelihood of members getting too provincial, and encourages them to work towards a common good.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.
Fryar has experience doing obnoxious YouTube videos.
If you're talking about this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDWASNqwNxw
Fryar is an attorney who spent time teaching at MCPS. He's defended IEP's against MCPS, so I'm very sure that the current MCPS administration would not be happy with an attorney on the BOE who knows where the dirty laundry sits.
I believe he was a teacher in Connecticut, not with MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.
Fryar has experience doing obnoxious YouTube videos.
If you're talking about this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDWASNqwNxw
Fryar is an attorney who spent time teaching at MCPS. He's defended IEP's against MCPS, so I'm very sure that the current MCPS administration would not be happy with an attorney on the BOE who knows where the dirty laundry sits.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.
Fryar has experience doing obnoxious YouTube videos.
Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?
The idea it to make sure candidates come from all over the county - not just Takoma Park - yet still represent the entire county. It reduces the likelihood of members getting too provincial, and encourages them to work towards a common good.
Difficult since 3 of the 14 early voting stations are in Silver Spring and with one in Wheaton and one in Burtonsville (honorary SS burb's). Since anyone in the county can vote for anyone else's BOE rep, it won't stop unless Moon's legislation pushes through, and even then you need to wait until the next election before it has any effect. It will take years to undo this damage.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?
The idea it to make sure candidates come from all over the county - not just Takoma Park - yet still represent the entire county. It reduces the likelihood of members getting too provincial, and encourages them to work towards a common good.
Anonymous wrote:Incumbents are Wolff, Silvestre and Joftus, they are inept, I am not voting for them. Apple ballot has Yang, Coll and Rivera-Oven. I don’t trust MCEA so I’m not voting for them. Haven’t figured out what I’ll do for district 3, but for the others I am voting for Wells, Fryar and Iannaco-Hahn. They are prioritizing students and families. They have experience in education, mental health, law and finance and all have kids in MCPS now. Easy decision.
Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?
Anonymous wrote:Reminder that this is just the primary, and the top two vote-getters in each race will advance to the general election in November. I predict these candidates will advance:
At-large (no MCEA endorsement):
Silvestre*
Giandomenico
District 1 (no incumbent):
Rivera Oven#
Guan
District 3:
Joftus*
Yang#
District 5:
Wolff*
Coll#
*incumbents
#MCEA-endorsed
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Our mail just arrived, including Apple Ballot endorsements.
Julie Yang has their endorsement, rather than Scott Joftus. This is a real surprise to me. I had planned on supporting her, but maybe I should look more at Joftus? Anyone have more knowledge on why she's the Apple choice?
Because she's a former teacher and college/career counselor in MCPS.
What has Joftus done (or not done) as a current BOE member that Apple Ballot is in full support of an opponent? I know he hasn't been on BOE very long, but it sounds like he didn't align with the Union's preference somewhere...
Where have you been? You need to look up the old threads on how covid money was spent and his personal connection (search "Kid Museum").
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/50/1018735.page
I was voting for Fryar, but now that this new guy is in the ring, I'm waiting to see who the Apple Ballot endorses. MCEA is still licking their wounds over two no-confidence votes that got the hand, but I'm hoping they learned their lesson enough to stop supporting nutcases and picked mainstream folks this time around. The reason why I'm voting Apple Ballot to get as many votes as possible to swing the board over. The problem is that Silver Spring controls most of the county voting since Montgomery County residents can vote for any other Districts reps.
The current Apple Ballot is here:
https://www.mceanea.org/political-action-community-engagement-pace/apple-ballot/
Grace Rivera-Oven, District 1
Julie Yang, District 3
Valerie Coll, District 5
Assuming that the Union is picking people mainstream folks is a really big assumption you've made.
I don't follow you comment how Silver Spring controls most of the county. Aren't all Mont County residents able to vote for all seats / districts for BOE?
I didn't follow much about BOE this school year because my youngest DC is a senior and I am SO DONE with the drama known as Montgomery County Public Schools. However, I know the current (and past) BOE members have basically sucked and I'm happy to vote them out.
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I had read somewhere that Silver Spring had the greatest number of voter turnout and never understood why until I did a little research.
Voting is on 7/19/2022, but Early Voting starts on the 7th.
The interesting thing is where the 14 early voting centers are:
Silver Spring (3 locations)
Wheaton
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Rockville (3 locations, but one is actually N. Potomac and another, the Bauer Drive Community Center, is difficult to access, imho)
Germantown
Gaithersburg
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Chevy Chase
Potomac
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Burtonsville
Sandy Spring
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Damascus
https://www.elections.maryland.gov/elections/2022/2022_Early%20Voting_Centers.pdf
Montgomery County has about 1M people in it and this is how almost 60% of the population is distributed. I marked the number of voting centers next to the cities with asterisks:
1 Germantown 90K *
2 Silver Spring 78K ***
3 Gaithersburg 66K *
4 Rockville 65K ***
5 Bethesda 62K
6 Aspen Hill 52K
7 N Bethesda 50K
8 Wheaton 50K *
9 Potomac 45K *
10 Olney 35K
https://statisticalatlas.com/county/Maryland/Montgomery-County/Population
Only 10 of the 14 early voting centers are located in populated cities, and of those, 4 of 10 are clustered by Silver Spring / Wheaton and 5 of 10 in Rockville/Gaithersburg/Germantown (with a caveat that 2/3 of the "Rockville" locations aren't really Rockville or in that populated of an area?).
You're correct that all Montgomery County residents are able to vote for all Montgomery County seats / districts for BOE. This also means that it's "mob rule / winner-takes-all". If you campaign heavily in populated areas with available early voting centers (*cough* Silver Spring *cough*), you've got a better chance of winning.
I'm voting pure Apple Ballot to get the incumbents out and just waiting on their at-large pick (but if they don't pick one I'm going with Fryar).
Thanks for your comments.
I live in the City of Rockville and will be voting by Mail and will toss my ballot in a box in Gaithersburg that I used in 2022. DH will either request a Vote by Mail ballot or go to Bohrer Park for Early Voting (still making up his mind)... or he'll just vote on the Primary day. (The Gaithersburg location isn't inconvenient and has better parking.) You're right that Silver Spring has more Early Voting locations. I had thought that was due to County Council (or whoever sets them up) wanting to give the most access to people without access to cars.
I'm still not convinced of the Apple candidates. Docca isn't running in District 1, so there isn't any incumbent for them to endorse.
Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why the candidates from each voting district for BOE are selected by the voters from all districts instead of their own district? Is it determined by Maryland constitution or county law? How about county council?