Turnout low in Spotsy, higher in Fredericksburg. Civility is the word of the day among those working the tables at polling sites.
by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Turnout at select local polling sites in Spotsylvania has been slow this morning, according to the people we’ve spoken with at the polls.
At Chancellor Elementary School, we were told at 7:30 am there were about 186 people who had cast votes that morning. There are some 4,000 registered voters in the precinct.
One of the people working the tables for the Democrats out front told the Advance that “no one is taking literature,” because voters seem to have their minds made up before they arrive.
Speaking with a person at the Republican table, they reported that the people working out front were getting along well. Asked what sample ballots they were passing out, they were clear that they were only distributing the ones approved by the Republican Committe. This worker said that during early voting they had made an effort to stop Ignacio and his supporters from passing out the misleading ballots during early voting. “We were asking people not to share those,” the person at the Republican table told the Advance.
At Wilderness Elementary School, a person at the Democratic table said that at least one person working the tables for the Republicans was passing out Ignacio’s revised sample ballots, which are also misleading. He said a person handed him the sample ballot when arrived shortly after 6 am. (See photo below.)
Other workers at the Republican table that we visited were giving out the official Republican ballots put out by the Republican Committee.
Turnout was also low at Wilderness, with 113 voters recorded at 7:55 am. “Early voter turnout was fairly high,” said one person working the tables for the Republicans, which is probably suppressing the turnout now.
At nearby Ni River Middle School, 258 voters had cast ballots as of 9:00 am.
No to Ignacio
At Republican tables in two of the polling sites we visited, we saw workers actively encouraging people not to vote for Ignacio. In their hands were official sample ballots put out by the Republican Committee.
Heavy at Fredericksburg
The Advance also visited the polling station on Canal Street in downtown Fredericksburg. Those working the tables reported heavy turnout, which was confirmed by the officials in the polling center, who told the Advance that as of 11:00 there had been 503 voters that morning.
According to those we spoke with manning the tables, interest in the race for Senate District 27 was driving much of the turnout. So, too, was interest in the vote for City Council.
More to Come
The Advance will continue to circulate around polling sites today and will be publishing updates. Watch for post-election results beginning at 7 pm.
New Dominion Podcast
Marty Davis and Shaun Kenney discuss GEICO’s recent firing of 10% of its workforce at random, share their pre-election predictions, how institutions forfeit the public trust, why No Child Left Behind was a bad idea, and how HSAs and HDIPs could save health care.
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-Martin Davis, Editor
i stopped by Riverbend high school in Spotsy at around 11:30 this morning. There were several people staffing the tables outside and even more cars in the parking lot. I’ve not seen that number of participants for an off-off year in my 30+ years in this county.