Democrats will appear before Republicans on the election ballot for local offices this November, and Rob Werner will get the top spot among “petition candidates” for first selectmen.
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Those were the chief results of a “lottery” held just after 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Registrars of Voters Office to assign places on Darien’s election ballot form.
Several candidates showed up for the event, including Board of Selectman candidate Susan Marks, the GOP nominee, who said she didn’t think it made any difference where she showed up on the ballot.
Then why did she show up? “I was curious,” she said. “I don’t look at it as a win or lose kind of thing.”
“We’re following procedure,” added GOP Registrar John Visi.
“It’s definitely not a win or lose thing,” Marks said. “I figured I should be here.”
Other candidates who showed up: Marc Thorne, a Democratic nominee for the Board of Selectmen, Werner and Chris Noe, also a candidate for first selectman.
How did officials decide which names would go where on the ballot form? They took an old box, folded up some papers with each candidate’s name on it, or the name of one of the two political parties, held it up in the air and had Town Clerk Donna Rajczewski reach up and take out one piece of paper at a time. Whichever competing side was pulled out first, that one got the higher spot on the ballot.
Along the top of the ballot will be the offices up for election, going down the ballot will be the candidates, first Democrats, then Republicans, then candidates who got on the ballot by getting enough signatures on petitions.
The three petitioning candidates for first selectmen will appear under GOP candidate Jayme Stevenson, running for her third term. Those candidates are Werner, Joe Miceli and Noe.
Spencer McIlmurray is the only petitioning candidate for the Board of Selectmen. First the Democrats — Thorne and Rob Richards — will appear on the higher, Democratic line, then Republicans Susan Marks and Kip Koons, and below them McIlmurray.
Under state law, according to Rajczewski, there can be no more than three members of a five-member town board or commission. If McIlmurray wins more votes than either of the Democratic candidates for Board of Selectman (or, for that matter, either of the Republicans), he wins.
There will be no primary this year in Darien.