How Will Hyattsville's Ward 5 Election Work?

Following the resignation of former Hyattsville City Councilor Nicole Hinds Mofor (Ward 5), the city's Board of Supervisors of Elections has set forth the rules governing the special election to fill Mofor's vacancy.

According to a notice posted on the city website, both of Ward 5's seats will be contested during the regularly scheduled mid-term municipal election set for May 7, 2013, however there will not be a separate race to fill the vacancy. 

Instead, the Ward 5 candidate who wins that ward's popular vote will secure the four year term which normally would have been the only one in contention this year. The winner would be inheriting the seat currently occupied by longtime Councilor Ruth Ann Frazier, who does not plan to run for re-election this spring. 

The Ward 5 candidate who has the second largest share of that ward's popular vote secure office for the two years remaining in Mofor's term. Once those two years are up, the council member would have to run for re-election if he or she wanted to stay in power.

The filing period for Hyattsville's municipal election opens on Monday morning, Feb. 25, 2013 and runs through Friday evening, March 29, 2013. 

More than half of Hyattsville's 10 city council seats will be up for election this year, with one seat from each of the city's five wards plus the additional Ward 5 vacancy to be contested over the coming months. The mayor's seat is not up for election again until 2015.

In addition to Mofor's seat, the seats held by councilors Eric Wingard (Ward 1), David Hiles (Ward 2), Matt McKnight (Ward 3), Carlos Lizanne (Ward 4) and Ruth Ann Frazier (Ward 5) will all be contested.

The field is wide open. Three incumbents have declined to seek re-election this year, Mcknight, Lizanne and Frazier. Wingard and Hiles both said they intend to seek re-election.

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