Dear Penguin
I live just east of Flower Avenue and would have sworn my block was in Takoma Park. But then I learned there was no voting ward in Tuesday’s election for me, as apparently I live in East Silver Spring. My mail is delivered to Takoma Park, zip code 20912. Google Maps tells me I live in Silver Spring, zip code 20912.
One Takoma Park city council member told me the long-standing boundaries are peculiar. Terrific, but can I vote in Takoma Park’s elections or what?
Lisa R (via email)
Lisa
Thanks for your question. It’s funny you should ask about borders and voting, as the guys in the Penguin mailroom have been rigging foreign elections for years. The meshugas in Afghanistan? That was them. Turmoil in Honduras? Ditto. There isn’t a ballot box or Diebold machine on Earth that these guys can’t hack.
But when it comes to hijacking local elections, the mailroom crew is a little lost. They’re not really sure where unincorporated Silver Spring ends and the city of Takoma Park begins, thus blurring the sexiness of installing a puppet government. Being the lazy bastards that they are, the mailroom guys bounced your question to my inbox.
First, I consulted the city of Takoma Park’s website, which had very fuzzy maps outlining its council wards. But the site also had a PDF document from 2003 that listed general street addresses falling under its jurisdiction. If your home address lands somewhere on that list, then congratulations! You can vote in today’s elections in Takoma Park.
Next, I phoned Montgomery County’s board of elections to determine whether you can vote via provisional ballot if monitors at the Takoma Park polls weren’t convinced of your residency. The gentle woman on the other end of the line said you may do so at City Hall, but only if you truly live in Takoma Park.
My advice: If that PDF from the city’s website says you live in Takoma Park, and the address on your driver’s license says you live in Takoma Park, then take both documents with you to the polling place and demand a provisional ballot.
Good luck with everything, and let me know how it turns out.
Jennifer Deseo
Editor, The Silver Spring Penguin
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Are you paying TP city taxes? That will be your BIG clue and evidence that you are in TP, if not, you are not.
Also City of TP went to great pains putting up precise boundary marker signs around the town — look for the city logo on a round shield-like sign.
If your Prius scrapes bottom each time it creeps over the speed hump on your block, then you might live in Takoma Park.
This map is a bit clearer:
http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/clerk/agenda/items/2009/072009-3.pdf#4
The east side of Flower Ave. is not in city limits until you are south of Division St.
If your neighbor is heating his or her house by burning corn cobs, you might live in Takoma Park.
If you see a sign that says, “Takoma Park: Nuclear Weapon Free Zone”, then you are in, well, Takoma Park.
I live a couple blocks north of you, also east of Flower (Takoma Park, 20912 according to USPS), and I voted at the elementary school on Barron St in the presidential election two years ago. I don’t remember which local district that attached to, though…
If you hope your neighbors don’t see you driving past the TPSS food coop to go to Whole Foods in Silver Spring, you might live in Takoma Park.
I live east of Flower, but I’m just a block outside the city limits…I’ve never voted in the TP elections and don’t pay TP taxes…
Editor’s note: So you’re an East Silver Springer? Any other secrets we need to know about? — JD (Nov 4, 2009)
Occasionally I lose my Ls.