General Election — Silver Spring
Legislative Dist. 18 · Council Dist. 6 · School Board Dist. 4

County Council At-Large vote for up to 4 LEAN

Four countywide seats on the 11-member Council, which sets the budget and taxes, passes zoning changes and master plans, and can override Executive vetoes with a supermajority. Five candidates are running for four seats, and all four Democrats will win. You may vote for fewer than four (an undervote is allowed), so your 4th line is a signal. GGWash endorsed Goldberg, Sayles and Silvestre in the primary. Its 4th pick, Jim McNulty, lost. The Council these candidates join passed the FY27 budget 9-2: property tax held flat, income tax raised to 3.3% above $150K, Income Tax Offset Credit ended.

✅ Lean: Goldberg · Sayles · Silvestre — leave the 4th line blank — These are the three GGWash-endorsed YIMBYs, and housing supply is your top issue. Goldberg adds the most concrete rent-stabilization fix plus police and fire backing. Sayles is the only proven pro-supply vote. Silvestre brings the "abundance" framing and school-system experience. Their dings are real but small: Sayles's disputed Maui-conference statement (single-source, optics only), and board-governance questions for Silvestre. All four Democrats win regardless, so the 4th line is a statement. If taxes-for-services and BRT outweigh housing for you → Elrich. If you want a pro-permit, anti-rent-control Republican voice despite no record and no tax increases → Sherwin Wells.

County Council District 6 vote for 1 LEAN

Your district seat (Wheaton, Glenmont, Aspen Hill, Kemp Mill, North Kensington). It's a safe Democratic seat, so the real question is whether the incumbent's housing record outweighs her rent-control, immigration and data-center positions.

✅ Lean: Natali Fani-González — She's a proven leader on your #1 issue (More Housing NOW, office conversions, GGWash) with a competent budget and public-safety record. Tham has published little to weigh against that (her stated priorities are cost of living and police and hospital funding, and she has not been screened in depth). The misfits are real: she led rent stabilization, wrote the Trust Act and sponsored the data-center ban. If rent control and ICE cooperation outweigh housing supply for you → leave it blank, since Tham has stated no position on either.

Comptroller vote for 1 LEAN

The Comptroller is Maryland's tax collector and accountant and holds one of three votes on the Board of Public Works, which approves state contracts. It is a management job: the office can't set tax rates. The office is audited by the legislature's Department of Legislative Services, and that audit is the story of this race. Lierman is the heavy favorite: $3.3M raised against about $34K, and no Republican has held the office since Robert Graham in 1896–98.

✅ Lean: Lierman — you weight competence and a running record, and she's the one who actually runs the agency. The audit is a real management mark against her, not a character one, and her office concedes part of it. Dunn's skills fit the job on paper, but she has never run a public agency. If a divided-government check and the collections failures matter more to you → Dunn. Confidence: medium.

Attorney General vote for 1 LEAN

The AG is the state's lawyer. The office defends state laws (including the Community Trust Act, which the DOJ sued over on July 10, 2026), brings multistate and consumer-protection cases, and prosecutes police-involved deaths (since Oct 2023). It does not run local prosecutions; county State's Attorneys do. So the axes that matter here are public safety, immigration cooperation and protecting the election. The core dispute: keep litigating against the Trump administration, or refocus on in-state crime and fraud. Rated Safe D.

✅ Lean: Brown — competence over ideology. He is a sitting AG with big consumer wins, and he led or joined the case that protects Nov 3 mail voting. He misfits you on enforcement and immigration, and his two ethics questions are open, not proven. Rutledge's FOP endorsement is a real signal, but he has no prosecutorial or government-litigation record. If the police-union signal and a crime-first focus outweigh experience for you → Rutledge. Confidence: medium.

U.S. House — District 8 vote for 1 LEAN

Same three-way field as 2024 (Raskin 76.8 · Riley 20.5 · Wallace 2.5), rated Safe D. This federal seat doesn't touch local zoning, rent rules or MCPS. What's at stake is character, immigration and federal spending, and whether Raskin could chair House Judiciary in 2027.

✅ Lean: Raskin — no dealbreaker on the record found. The STOCK Act lapse is minor and he acknowledged it. His 2017 certification objection was ruled out of order and rested on Russian-interference and voter-suppression claims, not a claim that the count was fraudulent; weigh it yourself against Cox's 2020 conduct. He brings real institutional weight on the Judiciary Committee. Riley's conditional answer on accepting results (she says she would accept a result free of fraud, a lower bar than Cox's documented conduct), her mail-voting limit (which would end how you two vote) and her child-transition answer run into your lines. Wallace offers no current platform. If you want a protest vote on Raskin's left-leaning immigration and policing record → Wallace does that without a dealbreaker. Confidence: high.

State Senator — District 18 vote for 1 UNOPPOSED

No Republican filed and no write-in is on file as of Sept 28. The write-in deadline is Oct 15, 5 pm, so recheck then. Senator since 2019 (delegate 2007–19); vice-chair of Judicial Proceedings. He co-sponsored GGWash's Bring Back Main Street housing bill, though it was enacted only as a state study (due Dec 1, 2026). He was lead sponsor of the No Kings Act, which lets Marylanders sue federal agents for constitutional violations (signed May 12, 2026) and cuts against your ICE-cooperation lean. A 2018 accusation that he steered a candidate into a House race to complicate a challenger's path is a campaign-tactics claim he denied, not a finding. He skipped the Bethesda and Sun questionnaires but answered the League of Women Voters.

✅ Vote for Waldstreicher — no dealbreaker, a leadership role on Judicial Proceedings, and a (modest) pro-housing sponsorship. The immigration bills are a policy misfit, not a character problem. Confidence: medium.

House of Delegates — District 18 vote for up to 3 UNOPPOSED

Three names for three seats. No Republican filed and no write-in is on file (recheck after Oct 15). All three sponsored the 287(g) ban (HB 444, signed Feb 17, 2026), a policy misfit with your enforcement lean, not a character issue. The screen found no election-denial, anti-LGBTQ or ethics findings for any of them.

✅ Vote for all three: Kaufman · Shetty · Solomon — no dealbreakers and concrete legislative records. Keep an eye on Shetty's lobbying business, and note all three backed the 287(g) ban. Leaving a slot blank changes nothing. Confidence: medium.

Judge of the Circuit Court — Circuit 6 vote for up to 4 LEAN

Circuit judges hear the serious felonies, big civil cases, family law (divorce, custody, guardianship) and juvenile cases, and they serve 15-year terms. The Governor appoints them from a list vetted by a nominating commission and 12+ bar associations. Each appointee then has to win an election. Four seats, four names: all four sitting judges, running as a slate. The only challenger, Marylin Pierre, finished fifth in June and is off the ballot. Nobody outside the courts has published data on how these judges perform (no reversal rates, and complaints stay confidential), so every "against" below is structural, not personal. The Bar Association of Montgomery County (May 2026 newsletter) and the Maryland State Bar Association both endorsed all four. Keep two limits in mind: both endorsements were made for the June primary (no November re-endorsement found), and both bars back every sitting judge as a rule rather than rating each one. Judge McQueen also sits on BAMC's board. Both parties are on board too: the governor, 7 of 11 councilmembers and 25 of 35 legislators back the slate, and the county GOP voter guide recommends all four.

✅ Lean: all four — Burrell · Del Pino · Dietrich · McQueen — your default for judges is the Bar's sitting-judge slate, and both the county and state bars back all four. Every one of them cleared merit vetting, no public misconduct finding turned up (complaints are confidential, so absence proves little), and there's no challenger, so the outcome isn't in doubt. If you object to uncontested judicial slates on principle → vote for fewer than four or use the write-in line. It won't change who is seated.

Appellate Court of Maryland — At Large: Dan Friedman continuance in office · YES / NO LEAN

How a retention vote works: no one runs against him. You're answering one question: should Judge Friedman keep his seat on the state's intermediate appeals court? If YES wins, he stays. If NO wins or it ties, the seat goes vacant and the Governor appoints the replacement with Senate consent (Md. Const. art. IV §5A). A NO doesn't elect anyone. It just hands the pick back to the Governor. No bar association has issued a retention rating either way, and no organized "vote no" campaign was found. He did not answer the League of Women Voters guide. The county GOP guide says YES.

✅ Lean: YES — he has 12 years on the court, deep expertise in the state constitution, and no discipline on record. Voting NO probably wouldn't make the court more accountable in practice: if it won, the Governor would fill the seat rather than voters. If you want to protest retention elections with no information behind them → leave it blank instead of voting NO, since a NO that wins produces a gubernatorial pick, not an election.

State's Attorney vote for 1 UNOPPOSED

This is the county's chief prosecutor. John McCarthy has held the job since 2006 and has worked in the office since 1982, including ten years as deputy. He created the gang prosecution unit, a truancy court and the Mental Health Courts. He had no primary opponent (111,992 votes), no Republican filed, and no write-in had filed as of Sept 28 (write-in deadline: Oct 15). He answered the League of Women Voters guide but skipped Bethesda Today's questionnaire and candidate video. On your enforcement axis he's the best fit on the ballot: he backs restoring school resource officers (SROs), wants to be tougher on retail theft and scams, and has been cautious about youth-charging reform (the state's Youth Charging Reform Act takes effect Oct 1, 2026). ⚠️ Transparency note: in 2023 he hired sitting Circuit Court judge David Boynton. Boynton had negotiated the job while still presiding over criminal cases and did not disclose it. Courts granted new hearings in affected cases, and the public defender filed an ethics motion (Washington Post, Apr 15 / May 3 / Sept 9 / Oct 18, 2023). The conduct at issue was the judge's. No finding was made against McCarthy.

✅ Vote for: John McCarthy — the strongest enforcement fit on the ballot and 20 years running the office. The Boynton episode is worth knowing about, but the documented misconduct was the judge's.

Clerk of the Circuit Court vote for 1 UNOPPOSED

This is an administrative office: marriage and business licenses, land records, court filings and oaths of office. Karen Bushell has 25+ years in the Montgomery judiciary. She spent seven years as chief deputy clerk, was appointed Clerk in 2021 and was elected in 2022. Her priorities are e-filing (MDEC), customer service and staff training. She answered both Bethesda Today's questionnaire and the League of Women Voters guide. Unopposed in the primary (111,381 votes), and no Republican filed.

✅ Vote for: Karen Bushell — competent and non-ideological in a technical office, and she answered the voter guides.

Register of Wills vote for 1 LEAN

The Register opens estates, appoints personal representatives, keeps wills and acts as clerk to the Orphans' Court. It's a customer-service management job serving grieving families. Staff and the Orphans' Court judges handle the technical legal questions. None of your policy axes live here, so this comes down to management and character. The office changes hands in December either way. Longtime Register Joe Griffin died in Aug 2025, and the judges' appointee, attorney Paul Dollahite (appointed Dec 9, 2025), lost the June primary. Neither general-election candidate has probate or legal experience, and neither has said whether she'd keep the professional staff. Neither candidate's dealbreaker screen found anything. Reyes's screen is thinner because less of her public record is readable, and most of what exists comes from her own party.

✅ Lean: Barbara Ebel — neither brings probate expertise, so this is a management call. Ebel has two decades running public-facing government service operations and engaged with the voter guides. Reyes has run a real business, but she has given voters much less to judge her on. If you'd rather have an outside-party check on a long one-party office, or value her small-business and contracting record more → Reyes.

Sheriff vote for 1 UNOPPOSED

The Sheriff's Office handles courtroom security, evictions and extraditions, among other duties. Will Milam won the Democratic primary 65.4% to 34.6% (71,722 to 37,917) over incumbent Maxwell Uy. The deputies' union (MCGEO) said nearly 80% of its members in the office took part in a no-confidence vote against him; Uy disputed the union's claims. No Republican or write-in filed, so Milam will be sworn in in early December as the county's first Black sheriff. A state review of the office's child-support funding agreement involves Uy's tenure, not Milam's, and it has nothing to do with ICE or 287(g). ⚠️ Structural note: Milam is vice president of the Maryland FOP and a former president of the Prince George's deputies' union. The police and county-employee unions largely funded his campaign, including MCGEO, which represents deputies he will supervise. No complaint or finding was found; it's a built-in conflict to watch. On immigration he supports Maryland's 287(g) ban (signed Feb 17, 2026), which is the opposite of your cooperation lean (a policy misfit, not a character issue).

✅ Vote for: Will Milam — senior management experience at a comparable office, an enforcement orientation, and voters picked him roughly two-to-one over the incumbent, whom the deputies' union had publicly opposed. Keep the union ties and the 287(g) stance in mind.

Board of Education — District 1 vote for 1 UNOPPOSED

Grace Rivera-Oven has been board president since Dec 1, 2025, and she presided over the brutal FY27 budget, which cut hundreds of positions to close a $36M gap. The pick panel credits her with voting for the painful cuts rather than dodging them. She was first elected in 2022, beating Esther Wells, now the Republican county-executive nominee. Unopposed; the primary was canceled. She skipped Bethesda Today's questionnaire, the League of Women Voters guide and the candidate forums. Her campaign language centers on equity and belonging, and no stated academic-results priority was found, so this is a possible profile mismatch, not a red flag.

✅ Vote for: Grace Rivera-Oven — she steadied the board through a hard budget year. She's unopposed, so the vote is a statement.

Board of Education — District 3 vote for 1 LEAN

This is an open seat; Julie Yang left to run for Council. It isn't a dealbreaker race: no tie to Moms for Liberty, a party slate or election denial was found for either finalist, and the county GOP endorsed neither. The choice is an experienced PTA and policy insider versus a data professional from outside. McCarthy led the unofficial June count 46.6% to 17.3%, but that may have been a District 3-only electorate. They agree on a lot: both support classroom phone limits, staff-led library-book review with more transparency, and a fix for the boundary process. Both answered the League of Women Voters guide.

✅ Lean: Sally McCarthy — she's the best-prepared candidate on the board ballot on budget and facilities experience. Deep budget and construction experience plus a reading-and-math-first agenda with regular metrics fits "academic results first," and MCEA is a mild plus. If you want an outside, data-and-accountability voice and share her skepticism of more SROs → Sung.

Board of Education — District 5 vote for 1 UNOPPOSED

An open seat; Brenda Wolff is retiring after two terms. Elma-Lorraine Diggs is unopposed and the primary was canceled. Her public record is thin: she skipped the forums, Bethesda Today's questionnaire and the candidate video, but she did answer the League of Women Voters guide. Her platform's three pillars include "oversight and accountability." No positions on safety, achievement or curriculum were found, and no dealbreaker was found, though the screen is thin.

✅ Vote for (or leave blank — same result): Elma-Lorraine Diggs — nothing disqualifying and some relevant experience, but little to judge her on. She's unopposed, so either choice is fine. Low confidence: the record is thin.