Beatty

When you walk into the polling booth in D.C., you’ll have but one choice for pretty much every race on the ballot. Every race except that for the At-Large seats on the D.C. Council, of which two are up for grabs and every voter can choose two of their favorite candidates. But for the sole Republican running to win one of those seats, the choice is clear: only vote for her and no one else.

In an email blast sent out today, Republican challenger Mary Brooks Beatty urged voters to throw away their second vote:

Though each of you have two votes in the At Large Council race, it’s very important that those of you who support my candidacy vote only once. If you vote for two candidates, you could be helping another candidate win. Please just vote once. I am number two on the ballot.

Why such a plea? Because Beatty says that only she can ensure that there is partisan balance on the council, which will help prevent the sort of corruption and wrongdoing that has plagued the city’s current legislators.

“A one party system creates unchecked power which leads to mischief and unbalanced policy decisions,” wrote Beatty in the email. “If DC is going to break through the current “culture of corruption,” the unchecked power needs to be restrained. The only way to do that is to elect those can bring some sort of balance.”

The only official Democrat on the ballot is Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large). But Beatty has accused two independents—incumbent Councilmember Michael Brown and challenger David Grosso—of being Democrats in disguise, especially since both changed their party affiliation to run for the seat. (Two of the At-Large seats must be occupied by members of a non-majority political party.) Beatty’s request, of course, ignores a legitimate non-Democrat on the ballot, Ann Wilcox, who is a member of the Statehood Green Party, and two other independents, A.J. Cooper and Leon Swain.

According to D.C. GOP Executive Director Nick Jeffress, this request is standard practice for the party. “We generally encourage Republicans to bullet vote, and only vote for our candidate,” he said. Jeffress said that the party was in the final stages of sending out mailers in which it will urge local Republicans to only vote for Beatty in the At-Large race. (As of the end of September, there were 30,483 registered Republicans in D.C.)

As for Grosso, he told the City Paper in August that even though he’s running for Brown’s seat, he’s urging voters to choose him over Brown or Orange. It’s a smart move: Grosso has two chances to be someone’s pick, instead of one as happens in most other races.