Only a week after finalizing vote tallies from its last election, Fairfax County is gearing up to welcome back voters from several precincts for its next election.
Early voting will begin Wednesday (Nov. 23) to select a successor to Mark Keam, who resigned as delegate of Virginia’s 35th House District in September. A special election will be held Jan. 10, the day before the General Assembly convenes for its 2023 session.
(Updated, 3:35 p.m.) With most incumbents running away to victory, it appears that Fairfax County’s voter turnout for the general election this year will fall short of the 2018 midterms.
About 53% of registered, active county voters took part in this year’s midterm elections, per Fairfax County election officials. That’s about 16 percentage points off from the midterms four years ago. It’s also lower than last year’s gubernatorial election, which had a 60% turnout.
Mayor Sheila Olem will get a second term as mayor of the Town of Herndon after securing a narrow win against council members Sean Regan and Jasbinder Singh in today’s primary election.
According to unofficial results, Olem edged out the race by a little over two percentage points over Regan. Singh received the least number of votes: 16%.
Updated at 3:50 p.m. — With polls open for another three hours, Fairfax County has hit 45% turnout for the midterm elections, including 28% today, as of 3:48 p.m.
Earlier: With Election Day 2022 now underway, more than 200,000 Fairfax County residents have already voted.
(Updated at 7:35 p.m.) The race to finalize voter rolls for next week’s midterm elections may come down to the wire after Fairfax County received thousands of new applications today (Monday).
A computer error that affected Virginia’s voter registration system earlier this summer resulted in the state sending another 11,000 applications to the Fairfax County Office of Elections, which says it “will do whatever it takes” to process the documents in time for Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Holly Seibold, founder and president of the menstrual equity nonprofit BRAWS, prevailed in last week’s Democratic caucus for the next 35th House District delegate.
After three days of voting, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee (FCDC) announced Saturday evening (Oct. 8) that Seibold had won the party’s nomination over Providence District School Board Representative Karl Frisch by just 67 votes.
As early voting for the Congressional midterms continues, Democrats in Virginia’s 35th House District have a critical state race competing for their attention.
After longtime delegate Mark Keam resigned in early September, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee will hold a caucus on Saturday (Oct. 8) to select the its nominee for the vacated seat, which represents Tysons, Vienna, Dunn Loring and Oakton.
(Updated at 9:10 p.m.) In Fairfax County, the battle for control of Congress starts tomorrow (Friday).
The county will open three early voting sites and start mailing out absentee ballots for the Nov. 8 general election, which will decide three seats in the House of Representatives as well as the Town of Herndon’s leadership.
Three candidates are running for three seats on Reston Community Center’s Board of Governors.
The annual vote — known as the preference poll — will feature incumbents Beverly Cosham and Paul Thomas, along with Shane Ziegler.
What Was Behind Tuesday’s Storms — “Hundreds of trees were toppled and hundreds of thousands of people lost power Tuesday afternoon and evening as three storm complexes roared across the Washington region. The storms were fueled by hot and humid air that surged into the region, and were powered and sustained by strong high-altitude winds along an approaching cold front.” [Capital Weather Gang]
Firefighter Charged in Fairfax County Armed Robbery — “A D.C. firefighter has been arrested and charged with robbery after police say he brandished a gun and took someone’s property in Fairfax County, Virginia. Fairfax County Police said the robbery happened in May” [WTOP]
