New results show Di Cola winning County Council race by one vote

Aug. 11—Jazmin Di Cola has defeated Frederick County Council President M.C. Keegan-Ayer in a Democratic primary by one vote, according to a revised count released Wednesday.

The Frederick County Board of Elections spent Wednesday rescanning thousands of mail-in and provisional ballots after a discrepancy forced officials to decertify initial results of the July 19 primary.

The discrepancy — which came to light five days after results were initially certified — showed that there were more votes counted in the race between Keegan-Ayer and Di Cola than there were accepted ballots.

Election officials told The Frederick News-Post that 96 ballots were double-scanned due to human error. In addition, officials found, in a folder, four provisional ballots that hadn't been counted.

Three of those provisional ballots were accepted, and one was rejected because the person voted with an absentee ballot, Frederick County Election Director Barbara Wagner said.

The board discovered the errors on Saturday while preparing for a recount at Keegan-Ayer's request.

Di Cola and Keegan-Ayer are competing for the Democratic nomination for District 3 on the County Council. Initial results showed Di Cola — a political newcomer and community activist — defeating the incumbent Keegan-Ayer by three votes.

District 3 covers the western half of the city of Frederick.

Officials decertified the earlier results on Wednesday morning, then recertified new election results around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The updated numbers came the same day a lawyer for Di Cola disputed allegations from Keegan-Ayer that Di Cola does not live in District 3 and that she violated election law on the day of the primary.

Wednesday's court filings constituted a series of one-sentence acknowledgements and denials from Di Cola, who denies wrongdoing but does not further explain her living situation.

Keegan-Ayer filed suit in Frederick County Circuit Court on Aug. 4, arguing that Di Cola should be disqualified from the race and that her vote should not count. Di Cola acknowledged in her court filing that she voted for herself.

Keegan-Ayer alleged that Di Cola was living in The Apartments at Wellington Trace, which is in County Council District 1, not District 3.

Di Cola denied that she lives at the Wellington Trace complex in Wednesday's filing. The documents list her address as a home on Lauren Court in the Hillcrest neighborhood of west Frederick, in District 3.

The Lauren Court address listed is the same one Di Cola gave as her current address to a News-Post reporter in a text message sent Aug. 2.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m.

Di Cola's attorney filed a motion seeking more time, asking that the hearing be delayed until late next week.

Keegan-Ayer already had filed a motion seeking to expedite the case because of an upcoming deadline to certify the ballot for the November general election.

A judge granted Keegan-Ayer's request on Monday.

A judge will decide whether to disqualify Di Cola based on facts each side presents, Daniel Loftus, an attorney representing the board of elections, told the News-Post on Tuesday.

If Di Cola is disqualified, the Frederick County Democratic Central Committee would have until Aug. 19 to nominate another candidate for the general election.

Di Cola previously owned a home on Sawmill Court in the North Crossing neighborhood, in the northwestern part of the city, according to state property records. The home, which Di Cola listed as the contact address for her campaign when she filed to run in February 2021, is in District 3.

In Wednesday's filing, Di Cola acknowledged that she sold the Sawmill Court home on that date, but denied she "abandoned both her residence and domicile" there on the date of the sale, as Keegan-Ayer alleged.

Di Cola acknowledged she voted at Monocacy Middle School on July 19, which would have been her polling place had she still lived on Sawmill Court.

She also acknowledged that someone else owned the Sawmill Court home by July 19.

Keegan-Ayer alleged Di Cola signed her voting authority card that day using her Sawmill Court address, "attesting that that was her address at the time, when she was not actually residing there."

In its response to Keegan-Ayer's complaint, the Frederick County Board of Elections — a co-defendant in the case — confirmed Di Cola signed her voting card with the Sawmill Court address.

In Di Cola's response Wednesday, her lawyer wrote that she denies the allegations about the voting authority card. It isn't clear whether she is denying signing the card with the Sawmill Court address or denying that she no longer resided there when she signed it.

Bernard Semler, Di Cola's attorney, did not respond to multiple requests for comment Wednesday evening.

None of the documents Di Cola filed Wednesday contain a response to an affidavit filed Tuesday by Keegan-Ayer's lawyers, which was signed by a person who says they served Di Cola with the lawsuit at the Wellington Trace complex.

The person wrote that they hand-delivered the documents to Di Cola on Saturday in the parking lot of the Wellington Trace complex, the affidavit says.

Attached to the affidavit was a manifest, signed by Di Cola, saying she received the documents and listing her address as "6710 B Overton." That's part of the Wellington Trace complex in District 1 — the same address Keegan-Ayer lists in her complaint.

The affidavit also says the person returned to deliver more documents on Monday and spoke with a leasing agent and a maintenance person at the complex, both of whom confirmed Di Cola was a resident of the 6710 block of Overton Circle.

Counting process

Election workers began counting and scanning ballots early Wednesday morning, in a small room at the Board of Elections headquarters on Montevue Lane.

The 16,575 ballots being counted and rescanned were mail-in and provisional ballots from the July 19 primary election, Wagner said Wednesday.

Pairs of counters at eight tables took folders full of ballots and divided them to be counted. Each folder should have added up to 50.

When each folder was counted, it was given to a worker to take to workers who fed them into scanning machines.

Ballots for the District 3 council race were counted at specific tables, and scanned in at specific voting machines, Wagner said.

When the Frederick County Board of Elections certified primary election results on Aug. 1, Di Cola was the winner with 2,300 votes to Keegan-Ayer's 2,297.

After Wednesday's rescanning, Di Cola had 2,298 votes. Keegan-Ayer still had 2,297.

Election officials processed 1,063 provisional ballots and there were no problems with the scanning machines.

"It's been pretty well done," Wagner said.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, the counting was over and the five members of the Board of Elections were preparing to witness the official certification of the election.

But as board President Mary Lou Green and Clerk Larry Hill were working their way through signing the necessary five copies of the official results, Wagner got a call on her cellphone from elections officials at the state.

There was a problem. The county hadn't included a list of the winners of all of the races, and would have to reprint the results with the list included.

The election that had taken longer than most would take a little longer.

Finally, at 8:10 p.m., Green signed her last signature and spoke the magic words, to applause from her fellow board members:

"I now certify this primary election for 2022."

Staff writer Ryan Marshall contributed to this story.

Follow Ryan Marshall on Twitter: @RMarshallFNP