Though only one party had races on the ballot, Fairfax County saw a year-over-year increase in voter turnout for yesterday’s primary election.
Approximately 9% of the county’s registered voters cast a ballot on Tuesday, June 17, according to unofficial results — a jump from the 7.98% overall turnout last June, when both parties had U.S. House races on the ballot.
Early voting in Virginia’s 2025 Democratic primary begins tomorrow (Friday), officially kicking off the party’s bid to retake statewide seats that were swept by Republicans in 2021.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger has already secured the gubernatorial nomination, setting up a historic race with Republican nominee and current Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears that will give Virginia its first-ever female governor.
Under current Virginia law, adults placed into a guardianship or conservatorship are automatically deemed ineligible to vote. One Northern Virginia legislator, backed by a key advocacy group and a number of affected individuals, is working to change that.
State Sen. Barbara Favola (D-40) has introduced legislation that would eliminate the automatic stripping of voting rights of those who come under a guardianship.
Despite continued growth in early voting, Fairfax is facing an increasing space crunch at its Election Day voting locations.
“Many precincts are growing rapidly,” Fairfax County Electoral Board chair Kate Hanley told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday (Tuesday) during a review of the 2024 election season.
After a transformative election ousted most of Fairfax City Council’s experienced members, Mayor Catherine Read is pushing for election reforms to improve stability and representation.
Her plan includes adopting ranked-choice voting (RCV) and extending council terms to four years with staggered elections. Read says the changes are needed to prevent the kind of turnover seen this year, which she worries could disrupt long-term city projects.
All three incumbents vying for seats on Herndon’s town council this year are on track for reelection after all.
Councilmember Naila Alam secured a spot on the council based on the final tally of votes from this year’s Nov. 5 general election, pushing out Herndon Board of Zoning Appeals Vice Chair Stevan Michael Porter, who had an edge in preliminary election night results.
After reporting record turnout levels in 2016 and 2020, Fairfax County saw a noticeable dip in voter participation for this year’s general election.
The county reported a voter turnout of 68.35%, with 561,368 of its 821,347 registered voters casting a ballot either on Tuesday (Nov. 5) or during the 45-day early voting period, according to unofficial results that will be certified after noon tomorrow (Friday), the deadline for the county’s elections office to receive mail-in ballots.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, Fairfax County Democrats are confronting a more competitive Virginia, where heightened Republican mobilization has raised alarms about their hold on power in the purple state.
While Vice President Kamala Harris won Virginia by more than 5 percentage points, her margin was notably lower than President Joe Biden’s in 2020, when he won the state by over 10 points. Similarly, in Fairfax County, Harris captured 65.44% of the vote, down from Biden’s 69.85%.
The Town of Herndon has elected a new mayor and town council.
Councilmember Keven LeBlanc will be Herndon’s first openly gay mayor after defeating fellow Councilmember Pradip Dhakal with 55.3% of the vote to his opponent’s 43.5%, according to unofficial returns from the Virginia Department of Elections.
The polls have closed, and the results of the 2024 general election are in.
While the results in Fairfax County and elsewhere won’t be certified for days, unofficial returns indicate that Republican nominee Donald Trump will once again be president of the United States, defeating Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris in a high-stakes race that will shape the country’s direction on issues from abortion and immigration to climate change, health care and, according to many voters, the very future of democracy.
