Three months after abandoning a voting system that critics said likely had been outdated and inequitable for decades, the residents of Caroline County’s Federalsburg on Tuesday elected the first two Black council members in the town’s 200-year history.
The election — in this hamlet near the Delaware state line where nearly half the 2,800 residents are Black — capped off a year of negotiations and a federal lawsuit in which residents argued the previous system had been diluting minority residents’ votes.
It also marked the latest case in a long, fraught history of Maryland’s Eastern Shore communities switching local voting systems and then electing minority candidates for the first time after being faced with a legal challenge to align with the Voting Rights Act.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Sherone Lewis, a Federalsburg resident who was involved in the lawsuit and helped organize candidate forums in recent weeks.
“It’s not about us right now,” she said. “It’s about literally standing up for righteousness, and doing what’s right, and for our children and grandchildren.”
Brandy James, one of two Black women elected to the four-member town council Tuesday, said she ran in part because of the historic lack of representation for the town’s Black residents and to counter the long-standing belief that their participation in the process wouldn’t make a difference.
“I’ve heard over and over again that ‘my vote doesn’t matter,’ and, ‘I don’t want to vote,'” James said. “I want to combat that stigma.”
Experts and activists who’ve worked to change voting systems across the Eastern Shore since the mid-1980’s say it can take years to help residents learn about the political process and get them to vote after being unable to participate in that process historically.
Federalsburg — as ACLU of Maryland lawyers argued in the lawsuit on behalf of the Caroline County NAACP and local residents — was one such town where residents were locked out.
Under the previous system, all four council members were elected at-large, giving the larger white population more sway. The elections also were staggered in a way that made it impossible for minority residents to put their collective weight behind any single candidate at one time, they argued.
A U.S. District judge agreed the system violated the Voting Rights Act and, in June, accepted the town’s proposal to create two new voting districts with two members each.
District 1 has a 64% Black population and a 30% white population. District 2 has a 23% Black population and a 67% white population.
James, a crisis intervention expert who conducts trainings for police agencies, and Darlene Hammond, a pharmacy technician who is active in the community, were elected to represent District 1 with 52 votes and 70 votes, respectively. Scott Phillips, an incumbent council member who is white, also was running in the district and received 49 votes.
Hammond, who previously lost a race for council under the old system and became a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was unable to be reached for comment.
James, meanwhile, was not involved directly in the lawsuit but described herself in an interview as an outspoken resident who wanted to “become part of the change” she wished to see.
For her, that meant addressing some of the issues other residents had said in the lawsuit were neglected without representation on the council — like poor road conditions in the majority-Black neighborhoods, high water bills and a lack of communication between town officials and residents.
James said the dearth of communication around when local elections were held had been a personal frustration of hers for years.
She gave credit to Kimberly Abner, the incumbent mayor, for being open after the two of them met during a campaign season a few years ago. But other residents still didn’t have that personal connection to keep them in the know, James said.
“There should be some level of transparency in government with things as important as an election,” James said.
James said it was well known that the election this week was happening; campaign signs were “everywhere” and the races were “the chatter around town.”
Caroline County election officials also mailed every household a note about when the election was happening and in which of the new districts voters lived.
Still, in the week before the election, the Federalsburg town website didn’t prominently note that an election was imminent. On Wednesday, the results were not posted, though a post on the town’s Facebook page indicated the results. (A law passed by the Maryland General Assembly earlier this year and going into effect Oct. 1 will require local election results to be posted on the Maryland State Board of Elections website).
Both James and Jeffrey Stevenson, who lost a race for mayor Tuesday, said inspiring a new generation of candidates was a top priority.
“Win, lose or draw, my goal was just to inspire,” said Stevenson, a 34-year-old real estate broker who was running his first campaign.
Stevenson, who is Black, won 83 votes Tuesday. The incumbent Abner, who is white, won 191.
He said fixing roads, attracting new businesses and building a recreational center for kids were the highlights of his platform.
“I will still be active in the community,” said Stevenson, speaking before election day about the possibility of coming up short. “It will not stop my plans for the town. I’m definitely excited for the change.”
