This post was written by Hatchet reporter Ryan Lasker.
City voters on Tuesday chose more than just who should take the place of Mayor Vincent Gray: They also weighed in on the first-ever election of D.C.’s attorney general and a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.
Rebecca Coder, a member of the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission working for Democratic mayoral candidate Muriel Bowser’s campaign, stood outside the Francis-Stevens Education Campus in between checking the number of voters once an hour. She said that by 2 p.m., 483 people had voted at the N Street school.
Coder is running unopposed for her fourth term as a commissioner. She said she’s interested in helping the community “solve whatever their issues are with D.C. government.”
Standing by Coder’s side on the curb, voter Robert Petris wore a bright-blue “Catania” shirt. If elected, Independent candidate David Catania would be the first openly gay D.C. mayor.
“I think it’s time for a change in leadership in D.C.,” Petris said.
Petris, 53, said he noticed younger voters at the polls, which he attributed to the marijuana legalization initiative.
“I think that got a younger crowd that might be apathetic,” Petris said.
Phyliss Waldman, who voted at the school, said she votes “to retain bitching rights.”
“If you don’t vote, you make sure you don’t have a say,” she said.
Waldman said she felt informed enough to vote for incumbent Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., but that she didn’t know as much about the attorney general race.
“Election coverage is skimpy these days,” she said.