By Ashna Balroop

University of Maryland chaplain Ray Ranker won the College Park City Council District 3 City Council seat, beating UMD student Gannon Sprinkle and Michael Meadow, a mechanical engineer in the U.S. Architect of the Capitol. 

Results show Ranker secured 344 of the 512 votes cast in the election. Meadow won 99, and Sprinkle won 69, according to the City of College Park.

On March 11, College Park District 3 voters journeyed to city hall to cast their ballots in a special election for their next temporary city council representative. The District 3 City Council seat has been empty since Jan. 8, 2025 due to the resignation of council member Stuart Adams, according to DC News Now. 

Meadow, Sprinkle and Ranker spent time outside of city hall on Tuesday speaking to undecided voters about their campaigns. 

“There’s still some people that haven’t made up their minds,” Meadow said in an interview outside city hall. “So, I’d like to find out what they’re thinking of, what makes them on the fence, and what I can do to push them over to my side of the fence.”

Meadow said he believes that all of the people voting want to live in a better community and admires hearing the different perspectives constituents have about the issues pertinent to them.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Meadow said. “It’s been great to just meet people and see other members of the community, [and] hear their thoughts.”

Meadow, a lifelong College Park resident, said he hopes to make several changes to the College Park community if elected – from increasing community spaces to public safety. 

“We need a place for people to go and just relax, meet one another and meet your neighbors,” Meadow said. “I think that we can reallocate resources to get the University of Maryland police into Old Town and then move our contract officers to patrol the areas of Calvert Hills, Yarrow and College Estates.” 

Yonah Gross, a junior government and politics major, voted for Sprinkle, highlighting his policy about protections against exploiting student renters as a key factor. This policy, called an early lease ordinance, aims to eradicate artificial demand increases in the local housing and apartment market.

“Students attending the University of Maryland have a really strong pressure to live near campus, but there’s not enough housing to go around,” Gross said. “That leaves essentially an exploitative system of housing for students where we pay, relative to the surrounding areas, incredibly high rents.” 

Gross believed that Sprinkle was the right candidate for city council due to his determination, advocating for a rent subsidy program in College Park, which provided a $1,250 housing subsidy to 120 University of Maryland students. The money helped decrease the cost of the students’ rent and the burden that it may impose. 

“It got a lot of pushback from longtime residents, but he stuck to his guns, pushed through, and got it passed,” Gross said.

This instance instills confidence in Gross that if elected, Sprinkle would continue to be a public advocate.

 “On a personal level, I know [Sprinkle] isn’t going to give up when it comes to these issues,” Gross said.

Prince Rozario, a College Park resident, voted in the city council election for Ray Ranker, citing his community involvement as his reasons for voting for him. 

“He’s a pastor for one of the churches here, and he hosts, like a lot of events that [he doesn’t] have to, to get the neighborhood and community together,” Rozario said. “I think, as council member, hopefully, he can do that on a greater level, and do something with the rest of the city council that encourages more of a community vibe and feel to College Park.” 

Some of the issues that motivated Rozario to vote include neighborhood safety and cleanliness, which he believes Ranker can fix. 

“The city and the university have done a great job with the main strip of College Park,” Rozario said. “But then you see trash and the people who are not driving safely.”

Rozario believes that voting is important, especially in local elections, given the low voter participation in the last election cycle. 

“Every election is important – it doesn’t matter state, local, national, federal,” Rozario said.  “And I think we’re seeing the results of people not voting federally.” 

Featured Image: Campaign signs outside of the College Park City Hall on March 11, 2025. Photo by Ashna Balroop.