Valerie Coll conceded Tuesday to incumbent Brenda Wolff in the race for the District Five seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education.
“As the Board of Elections continues its long and thorough counting of all votes, I’d like to express my thanks to everyone for all of your support and good thoughts since the beginning of the counting,” Coll wrote in a post on her campaign Facebook page Tuesday evening. “There are still a few thousand votes to be counted but I believe that, in the end, we will have come close but will not be victorious. My congratulations go to Brenda on her election.”
The race between Coll and Wolff was too close to call on Election Night, with Wolff building a slight but steady lead over the last couple weeks as mail-in ballots were processed.
As of Tuesday evening, unofficial results from the state board of elections have Wolff leading the race at 52.33%, and 12,598 votes ahead of Coll.
Wolff has served on the board since 2018. She is currently serving her second one-year term as president of the school board. Wolff, 69, lives in Silver Spring.
Coll, 62, was an elementary school teacher in MCPS for 32 years. She lives in Silver Spring.
This is a developing story.