By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — “Polis” means city in ancient Greek.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Annapolis, Maryland, held elections for mayor on Tuesday.
As ballots were counted for the 15 contenders, it was apparent that incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey was in the lead in Minneapolis, followed by Somali-American Omar Fateh, a Democratic Socialist — a Jew versus a Muslim.
Both candidates fell short of the required majority. So, under Minneapolis’ ranked-choice voting system, the second choices of the losing candidates were allocated to the frontrunners. This process led to Frey, a mainstream Democrat, going over the top, with 50.03 percent of the electorate endorsing his bid for a third term.
In Annapolis, former Jewish Alderman Jared Littmann received 4,291 votes on Election Day, 2,493 votes more than his opponent Robert O’Shea, who garnered 1,798 votes. Littmann’s total was more than double O’Shea’s — convincing enough for O’Shea to concede defeat on Election Night.
However, there were approximately 2,500 mail-in ballots remaining to be counted. Although the odds that O’Shea would catch up in the counting are infinitesimal, those votes still have to be counted before Littman can be declared the winner with absolute certainty.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.