Virginia Update - As of 12:45 am 3 Nov

Presidential Race – Virginia 99% Precincts Reporting
BUSH (R ) 1,643,943 54%
KERRY (D) 1,388,805 46%

House of Representatives District 1 100% Precincts Reporting
DAVIS (R ) 216,935 80%
LEE (I) 54,649 20%

House of Representatives District 8 – 83% Precincts Reporting
MORAN (D) 133,496 60%
CHENEY (R ) 82,990 37%
HURYSZ (I) 7,197 3%

House of Representatives District 10 – 88% Precincts Reporting
WOLF (R ) 167,940 65%
SOCAS (D) 92,209 35%

House of Representatives District 11 - 79% Precincts Reporting
DAVIS (R ) 138,160 60%
LONGMYER (D) 87,754 38%
ODDO (I) 3,227 1%

The Mayor/ex-Governor

Former Virginia governor Douglas L. Wilder won the Richmond mayoral race handily. Which is fitting, because he worked hard to let Richmond citizens, instead of City Council members, have the power to pick their own mayor again.

More results from the Old Dominion

The meal tax in Hanover County is headed for defeat. New Kent County’s attempt to impose a meal tax is successful on the third attempt. These and other results can be found here.

Virginia exit polls out of whack

Like the TV pundits, I wondered why the networks took so long to call Virginia for Bush. According to Larry Sabato, the exit polls showed the state for Kerry.

9:15 PM Update

Presidential Race – Virginia 52% Precincts Reporting
BUSH (R ) 829,335 56%
KERRY (D) 646,203 44%

House of Representatives District 1 49% Precincts Reporting
DAVIS (R ) 104,309 82%
LEE (I) 23,186 18%

House of Representatives District 8 – 30% Precincts Reporting
MORAN (D) 54,933 61%
CHENEY (R ) 32,441 36%
HURYSZ (I) 3,188 4%

House of Representatives District 10 – 32% Precincts Reporting
WOLF (R ) 70,871 67%
SOCAS (D) 34,158 33%

House of Representatives District 11 - 10% Precincts Reporting
DAVIS (R ) 12,833 59%
LONGMYER (D) 8,435 39%
ODDO (I) 351 2%

Richmond mayoral race has been called

The local CBS affiliate has just called the first at-large mayoral race in 60 years. Former Governor Doug Wilder will be the winner.

8:40 pm Update

Presidential Race – Virginia 46% Precincts Reporting
BUSH ® 728,353 56%
KERRY (D) 569,398 44%

House of Representatives District 1 41% Precincts Reporting
DAVIS (R ) 88,304 82%
LEE (I) 19,473 18%

House of Representatives District 8 – 30% Precincts Reporting
MORAN (D) 54,933 61%
CHENEY ® 32,441 36%
HURYSZ (I) 3,188 4%

House of Representatives District 10 – 11% Precincts Reporting
WOLF ® 67,380 67%
SOCAS (D) 32,542 33%

State constitutional amendments

Two amendments had been proposed for the VA state constitution, one dealing with apportionment and the other with gubernatorial succession. With approximately 45% of the precincts reporting, both amendments look likely to pass.

Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1 - Apportionment

Precincts Reporting: 1131 of 2406 (47.01%)
Registered Voters: 4,521,528 Total Voting: 1,118,208 Voter Turnout: 24.73 %
More Information Vote Totals Percentage
Yes 957,056 85.59%
No 161,152 14.41%

Proposed Constitutional Amendment 2 - Succession to the Office of Governor

Precincts Reporting: 1198 of 2406 (49.79%)
Registered Voters: 4,520,637 Total Voting: 1,231,794 Voter Turnout: 27.25 %
More Information Vote Totals Percentage
Yes 1,072,487 87.07%
No 159,307 12.93%

Real-time election results

Virginia has been called for Bush by several networks. To see real-time results, go here.

At this posting, 50% of the votes have been tallied. Voter turnout is high, running at about 60%.

8:20 PM Returns

Presidential Race - Virginia 29% Reporting
BUSH ® 430,884 55%
KERRY (D) 351,269 45%

House of Representatives District 8 16% Reporting
MORAN (D) 32,625 60%
CHENEY ® 19,895 37%
HURYSZ (I) 1,683 3%

House of Representatives District 10 11% Reporting
WOLF ® 22,594 67%
SOCAS (D) 11,272 33%

House of Representatives District 1 32% Reporting
DAVIS ® 67,900 79%
LEE (I) 17,725 21%

Tax referendums on the ballot

Both Hanover County and New Kent County have referendums on the ballot to allow their respective counties to assess a meal tax. This will be the first such ballot for Hanover County, while voters in New Kent County have rejected such a tax twice in the last six years.

Richmond mayor

Residents of the city of Richmond will be voting for an at-large mayor for the first time in 60 years. Under the current system, the City Council votes for mayor from among their ranks.

For more details about each candidate, click here.

Ballot error at Richmond precinct

Heavy voting in Virginia today, with people waiting in long lines. Problems like this one will only make the wait longer. Excerpt:

Local residents are lining up early to cast their vote, but already there are problems at one Richmond precinct.

At precinct #306, the Henderson Center on the Virginia Union campus, election officials say that some wrong names were put on the ballots. All the names were fine except for the congressional seat.

The ballots should be for the 3rd Congressional District, the race between Bobby Scott and Winsome Sears. Instead, the ballots had the candidates from the 7th District listed.

I voted -- The turnout IS large

Well, I voted. I went up to the precinct polling place — Orange Hunt Elementary School in Springfield VA at 9:55 am. In Fairfax County, the schools have “teacher work days” the day before and the day of a national election so the county can use the schools as polling places.

I have been voting in the same precinct since 1980. On a typical election, voting in mid moring or mid afternoon, you have the polling place to yourself. Well this election IS going to be different. The turnout is very large. At the Orange Hunt precinct, the voters are divided into three lines based on the first letter of your last name: A-G, H-0 and P-Z. I don’t know what happens if your last name starts with a number or a special character.

But I digress. The lines at the 3 registration tables were about equal length—about 10 deep waiting to register. The waiting line to actually vote was about 50 voters long and wound around in snake-like fashion for the opportunity to vote.

There were a dozen laptop computer voting machines. We have used them or ones like them in an earlier election, so if you had voted recently, you were not surprised. Fairfax County has been using electronic voting machines for over a decade. These machines are VERY EASY to operate. And the screen images are so large that even the nearly blind can see and read them. You can mark your choices, back up and change your choices, and are given a summary of your choices before you actually press the “VOTE” button sending your to the record system. Even after reviewing the summary of your selections, you still can back up and change your vote. But, once you press “VOTE” you are done. It’s like dropping a paper ballot into a ballot lock box. Too late to change after that. [There is a poll attendant at each machine to assist the folks who can’t figure out or follow even the most elementary, common sense set of instructions. I actually don’t understand why these machines aren’t used everywhere, but I suppose that would make it too difficult to inject fraud if the voting process was too easy.]

Getting back to the voters, as your registration is verified, another poll monitor marks off a count sheet. I was number 402 to come this morning at my H-O table. As I waited in the voting lines I was able to see the count sheets at the other two tables. The P-Z was marked at 451 while the A-G was 432. It took 25 minutes to vote. In that time the voting lines remained a constant length. When I left at 10:20, there were more cars in the parking lot than when I arrived as I originally couldn’t find a parking spot, so I parked in the “Kiss and drop” lane the school has for moms dropping off kids on school days. When I left, that lane was full also.

Maybe 80-90 percent will be an good projection after all.

Virginia Turnout Heavy

I voted in the Northern Virginia suburbs this morning, and when I arrived at 7:45, I heard some had been waiting in line for an hour an a half since the polls opened at 6:00. It took me and my wife about an hour to wait in line and about 30 seconds to vote on slick touch screen voting machines. God save the Commonwealth, the most efficient state government in the union.

The mood of those standing in line was almost festive. Everyone was happy to be excercising their liberty. And they are happy that, soon, it will all be over.

Large early turnout observed in Richmond

There were more than 100 people waiting for the doors to open this morning at the local polling place. I came back at 7:00 and waited one hour to vote, which is the longest I’ve ever had to wait in this precinct. My suggestion to any Richmond area voters is to vote from 9-12 or 2-4. All signs point to a long wait for people voting after work this year.

Update: A record turnout is expected across the entire state this year, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch. Excerpt:

A record turnout of more than 3.3 million voters is expected in Virginia during the 13-hour voting pe- riod. The 2,296 voting precincts open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

Unseasonably warm weather, with highs in the 70s to 80s under partly sunny skies, was forecast for most of the state, giving voters little excuse to stay home.blockquote>

Posted by Matthew Bryson at 09:16 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

VA Shatters Absentee Record

Richmond, Va. (AP) - Virginia has shattered its record for absentee ballots cast and returned, according to State Board of Election data compiled Monday.

Driven by the most fiercely contested presidential election in at least 12 years, 175,966 voters have filled out absentee ballots and returned them to local electoral boards across the state to be counted Tuesday night.

Article is available HERE

The day has dawned if very fall-like weather - clear, bit of a chill in the air with a change of a shower later this evening. Weather should not be a factor in discouraging turnout. Many precincts, according to the major TV stations in the Metro DC area are predicting turnout of 80-90 percent. I’ll believe that figure when I see it. Traditionally they are lucky to get 18-22 percent turnout. I do expect turnout to be better than the historical averages in this area.

Virginia Presidential and Fairfax County Congressional Ballot

Candidates are listed in order chosen by lot at the State Board of Elections.

Presidential race - Virginia ballots will list four president/vice president teams:

Democratic Party: Electors for John F. Kerry, president; John Edwards, vice president

Republican Party: Electors for George W. Bush, president; Dick Cheney, vice president

Constitution Party: Electors for Michael A. Peroutka, president; Chuck Baldwin, vice president

Libertarian Party: Electors for Michael Badnarik, president; Richard Campagna, vice president

U.S. House of Representatives races - Three congressional districts cover Fairfax County. All are listed here, but voters will see only their local race on the ballot.

8th District: James P. Moran (D ) (incumbent), Lisa Marie Cheney (R ) and James T. Hurysz (I )

10th District: James R. Socas (D ) and Frank R. Wolf (R ) (incumbent)

11th District: Ken Longmyer (D ), Thomas M. Davis III (R ) (incumbent) and Joseph P. Oddo (I )

The Northern Virgina Ballot

Besides the Presidential and Congressional contest, the voter of Virgina will have two proposed Virgina Constitution Amendments to consider. The first is the more interesting of the two. It deals with clarifying

… the once-a-decade practice of redrawing districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate. Following the last redistricting in 2001, a handful of General Assembly seats quickly changed hands because of resignations or the relocation of a district. New members were elected from the new district, causing confusion among voters. This amendment would change the current practice, delaying the implementation of the new districts until the general election prior to the end of the terms being served in the old districts.

It seems some people find elections and their results confusing and just moving the effective date will clarify the election results in the minds of these people.

The second proposed amendment adds three additional officials to the line of succession in the event of the death or incapacitation of the Governor (and Vice Governor).

The actual text of these two proposal is available here

Additionally, Fairfax County has four bond issues for the voters to consider. They deal with

Human Services Facilities Bonds: Fairfax County is proposing to sell $32.5 million in general obligation bonds.

Library Facilities Bond: Fairfax County is proposing to sell $52.5 million in general obligation bonds.

Parks and Park Facilities Bonds: Fairfax County is proposing to sell $75 million in general obligation bonds.

Transportation improvements and facilities bonds: Fairfax County is proposing to sell $165 million in general obligation bonds.

Neither the proposed Constitutional Amendments nor the Bond Issues have received significant publicity. Most voters will first find out about these issues by reading precinct literature while they are standing in the votine line.