Write-In Candidate Gatto Wins District 3 Commissioner's Race

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Nov. 4, 2010


Local political history was made this week, as a write-in candidate actually won an election, specifically the Garrett County District 3 commissioner's race.

Official write-in Republican contender Bob Gatto received more than 4,000 of the 4,352 write-in votes that were cast in Tuesday's general election.

Republican Tim Thomas and Democrat George Falter, together, received the remainder of those write-in votes.

Democrat Bill Welch had 2,603 votes, or about 30 percent, and the late Commissioner Denny Glotfelty, a Republican, garnered 1,755 votes, or 20 percent, in the District 3 race.

After ballots were cast on Tuesday, Garrett County Board of Elections judges only knew the number of write-in votes that were cast in that race. They did not know exactly who received how many of those votes until after they canvassed the ballots line by line. That procedure began at 10 a.m. this morning (Thursday, Nov. 4).

Board director Steve Fratz announced the results at noon today.

Glotfelty defeated Gatto, Thomas, and Louis Newcomb in the September primary. The one-term incumbent received about 41 percent of the votes, while Gatto had 32 percent, Newcomb had 16 percent, and Thomas had 11 percent of the Republican votes.

On the Democratic side, Welch defeated Falter by garnering 76 percent of his party's primary votes.

Glotfelty died on Oct. 21, leaving a quandary for the Garrett County Republican Central Committee and local voters. Since the candidate's death occurred so closely to the general election, Glotfelty's name could not actually be removed from printed absentee and electronic ballots. In addition, the committee had only a few hours to come up with a Republican candidate who would essentially replace Glotfelty. Rather than "hastily making such a decision" about filling such "big shoes," the committee asked residents to vote for Glotfelty "one more time" to show their support for him.

After receiving the support of the Glotfelty family, Gatto filed as a write-in candidate on Oct. 25. Following that endorsement and some public backlash for their previous lack of action, the current central committee backed Gatto.

Thomas filed as a write-in on Oct. 26, and Falter filed on Sept. 27.

There were no major surprises in other local races, as Republican candidates easily defeated their Democratic challengers. Registered GOP voters outnumber Democrats by about three to one in Garrett County.

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