Initial Indicator: Incumbents Likely to Win

Based just on totals from absent voter count boards, it looks likely that incumbents in three Ann Arbor city wards will win the Democratic Party’s nomination for city council representative, and to appear on the ballot in November.

In Ward 2, Stephen Rapundalo received 232 absentee votes (60%) compared with Tim Hull’s 155. In Ward 3, Stephen Kunselman received 159 absentee votes (56%) compared to 120 and 7 for Ingrid Ault and Marwan Issa, respectively. And in Ward 5, Mike Anglin received 298 absentee votes (72%), compared with Neal Elyakin’s 117.

Absent voter count board totals reflect absentee voting totals across all precincts in the ward. Those totals are thus not as susceptible to reflecting an advantage a candidate might enjoy that is peculiar to just one precinct. Still, to a certain extent, these voters self-select to vote using an absentee ballot, and as a group are not a random sample of voters in the ward. So some caution is warranted in drawing conclusions based on these totals.

The other two city wards did not have contested Democratic primaries. No city ward had a contested Republican primary.