Votes for ousted New Carrollton mayor will count, judge rules, contradicting election board chair

A Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge ruled Friday afternoon that New Carrollton must count votes cast for ousted Mayor Phelecia Nembhard, according to her attorney. Nembhard is running as a write-in candidate in Monday’s special election.

The chair of the city’s Board of Elections, Charles Davis, previously said Nembhard was not a certified candidate, that her candidate packet had been rejected and that write-in votes for Nembhard would not be counted.

“We had an emergency hearing on Friday afternoon, and Judge William Snoddy indicated that he did not agree with their basis for excluding her from the ballot,” said Tiffany Alston, an attorney representing Nembhard. “Because of the timing he wasn’t going to make them redo the ballot. However, they must count all of her votes.”

Alston, who recently won election to the state legislature and was previously removed from the body for misuse of funds, called the city’s attempt to exclude Nembhard from the election a “gross miscarriage of justice.”

The special election comes two months after the City Council voted 4-1 to remove Nembhard from office over allegations that she violated a hiring freeze. Nembhard has denied wrongdoing and, through her attorneys, is continuing to challenge her removal in court.

The council’s decision to remove the mayor drew a large crowd of Nembhard supporters to a September meeting, where tensions flared and one resident was escorted out by officers.

Nembhard has continued campaigning via door knocking and text alerts. She is urging supporters to write in her name despite the city’s earlier position that those votes would not count.

“I’ve been telling them to write me in anyway, because I know they can’t stop the process,” she said. “They’re playing some serious games. So I took it to the court.”

The official ballot lists two candidates: City Council member Briana Urbina and former New Carrollton Mayor Katrina Dodro, who lost to Nembhard in 2025. Urbina has called for changes to the city’s governing structure, while Dodro is campaigning on restoring stability to city government.

The winner will serve the remainder of Nembhard’s term, which runs through May 2027. Both Urbina and Dodro previously told The Banner that they plan to run for mayor again next year, regardless of the outcome of Monday’s election.

Despite the court’s ruling, Davis told The Banner on Monday morning that he still isn’t sure whether Nembhard’s votes would count.

“Right now we are just running an election, and we still have just two people on the ballot,” Davis said. “That’s pretty much what we have. There are some legal wranglings, but we don’t know the full result of that yet.”

Davis said he’d plan to follow up with the city attorney. A city official later told The Banner that the city could not provide further comment at this time.

Nembhard’s attorney disputed Davis’ characterization of the ruling.

“The judge said to count her votes, and if there was a problem, to come back to court. The judge is expecting them to count her votes,” Alston said.

Dodro, who said she had been at the polls since 7 a.m., said she’s heard reports from voters at the New Carrollton Municipal Center that folks had written Nembhard’s name in ink on the physical voting machines.

“When it’s been brought to the attention of the election judges, they cleaned them up, but it’s happened multiple times,” she said.

Dodro said voters who have come out to support Nembhard aren’t budging.

“I think that most of the people who are coming in to vote for her are not interested in hearing from us,” Dodro said, adding that she’s trying to reach undecided voters, urging them to consider the character and actions of the people seeking office.

“I’m interested in a government with integrity and ethics,” Dodro said. “I want to bring that here. I want us to have a calm government that can move forward and make really important decisions and make government work. And I’m hoping that other people feel the same way.”

The New Carrollton City Council members could not be reached for comment.

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