Voters do their part for local, mid-term elections

Published 10:44 am Wednesday, November 7, 2018

[Editor’s note: This version corrects the error that incumbent Patty Flemming was reelected.]

COURTLAND
Voting in Western Tidewater on Tuesday featured both local and federal elections, each with what the respective registrars described as an essentially positive turnout. Residents in Southampton County chose interim treasurer Rhonda Vinson Griffin at 3,475 votes to be full-time; Cynthia Jarratt Edwards had 3,156 votes.

In Windsor, people decided on Glyn T. Willis as mayor (764 votes; 95.74 percent.) The newcomers to Town Council are George L. Stubbs (410 votes; 20.07 percent;) J. Randy Carr (364 votes; 17.82 percent); and Kelly G. Blankenship (358 votes; 18.82 percent.)

There were no council positions on which to vote in Franklin.

As of press time, statewide there were only 2,085 precincts out of 2,567 (81.22 percent) reporting for Senate. Incumbent Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, had 1,286,107 votes (54.58 percent) to Republican Corey A. Stewart’s 1,023,349 votes (43.43 percent.) Libertarian Matt J . Waters had 43,496 votes (1.85 percent) and 3,284 write-ins (0.14 percent.)

In 173 precincts out of 209 (82.78 percent) reporting for the 3rd District, incumbent Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, a Democrat, had so far 162,217 votes (90.90 percent;) write-ins at 16,248 (9.10 percent.)

in 207 precincts out of 263 (78.71 percent) reporting for the 4th District, incumbent A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat, was at 109,959 votes (52.45 percent) to challenger Ryan McAdams, a Republican, at 63,632 votes (36.14 percent.) Libertarian Peter J. “Pete” Wells had 2,310 votes (1.31 percent) so far, and there were 172 write-ins (0.10 percent.)

But Western Tidewater residents had already made up their minds.

In Southampton County, Kaine got 3,047 votes, but Stewart got 3,920 votes; Waters had 67 votes.

In Franklin, Kaine received 1,893 votes (63.33 percent) while Stewart received 1,064 votes (35.60 percent.) Waters received 30 votes (1 percent,) and there were two write-ins (0.07 percent.)

In Isle of Wight, Kaine got 7,353 votes (43.77 percent) while Stewart got 9,167 votes (54.56 percent.) Waters got 263 votes (1.57 percent) and there were 18 write-ins (0.11 percent.)

Scott, the only listed candidate for the 3rd District in the House, received 2,150 votes in Franklin (90.68 percent;) the 221 were for write-ins. Isle of Wight gave him 8,969 votes (79.62 percent,) and there were 2,296 write-ins (20.38 percent.)

In the 4th, Southampton gave McAdams 3,967 votes; McEachin, 2,895; and Wells, 93.

There was also on the ballot two state amendments, each related to tax exemptions.

The first asked, “Should a county, city or town be authorized to provide a partial tax exemption for real property that is subject to recurrent flooding, if flooding resiliency improvements have been made on the property?”

The second asked, “Shall the real property tax exemption for a primary residence that is currently provided to the surviving spouses of veterans who had a 100 percent service-connected, permanent disability be amended to allow the surviving spouse to move to a different primary residence and still claim the exemption.”

Southampton said yes at 4,928 votes; no at 1,826 for the first question; 5,618 yes votes; 1,195 no for the second.

Franklin said yes to both at 2,158 (73.98 percent) and 2,439 votes (83.73 percent) respectively.

Isle of Wight also said yes to both at 11,384 votes (69.55 percent) and 13,666 votes (83.45 percent) respectively.

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During the mid-afternoon, Southampton County Registrar Lynn Burgess said, “It’s a big locality, but generally speaking, it’s been a good turnout.”

Debbie Puckett, who was a voting official at the polling site in Courtland Volunteer Fire Department, described the voting as “pretty good for a mid-term election.”

She added that voter No. 560 had just gone to cast a ballot at approximately 3:30 p.m.

After coming out of the polling station, Leighann Kitchen of Courtland said that she was confident her candidate choices would win.

Franklin Registrar Jennifer Maynard reported that 35.7 percent of city residents had voted as of 3 p.m., and added that number did not include absentee ballots. At that time, she said it was “hard to tell until the close of polls” if that turnout was fair, good or even strong for this mid-term.

In Isle of Wight County, polling sites in Windsor, Walters and Carrsville each reported higher than normal turnout for a mid-term election. As of 9:50 a.m., Windsor reported a total of 415 voters, while Walters reported 289 as of 10:10 a.m. Carrsville reported that as of 10:28 a.m., 19.34 percent of the village’s registered voters had cast their ballots — a statistic one poll worker described as “pretty amazing.”

Lisa Betterton, voter registrar for Isle of Wight County, said that county-wide, voter turnout as of 3 p.m. was around 43 percent.

“Compared to our last mid-term, it’s quite a bit above,” she said.

All election totals are unofficial until each registrar is finished canvassing their respective localities to confirm the numbers.