-PJ
Dispatch from the polls: Mount Ararat Baptist Church in North Stafford
Turnout at the precinct at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in North Stafford was steady Tuesday morning.
Linda Schneider, who volunteered to hand out Republican literature, brought a knitting project to pass the time — but so many voters had come out that she hadn’t made much progress.
“The fact that I’ve only done two rows is a good sign,” said Schneider, who hoped turnout would exceed predictions.
Marguerite Nugent said she came out to support candidates who promised better funding for public schools and solutions to the area’s transportation woes.
She noted that the gubernatorial candidates would have been better served focusing on their messages rather than negative campaigning.
“I’d rather see what their stand is,” Nugent said.
Joseph Harpe said he wasn’t real happy with any of the candidates, but the mess with the Affordable Care Act pushed him solidly into Cuccinelli’s camp.
Meanwhile, Ron and Carolyn Coles said they felt too much had been made of the healthcare law’s early missteps.
“Bad-mouthing the healthcare plan doesn’t help,” Ron Coles said. “The healthcare plan will make or break its own self. If you don’t have any healthcare, that’s a bad plan. If you have a chance to get healthcare, then it’s a good plan.”
The couple also said they supported abortion-rights candidates, noting that Cuccinelli’s opposition to abortion even in cases of incest and rape seemed too extreme.
Dispatches from the polls: Conway Elementary and Dixon-Smith Middle in Stafford County
According to several interviews late in the morning at a pair of Falmouth-area polling sites, Republicans had the edge in the statewide elections. Locally, it seemed like Robert Belman had the edge over M.G. “Meg” Bohmke and Valerie Setzer for the Falmouth District Board of Supervisors seat.
While most people interviewed went for the Republican tickets in the statewide elections, one voter at Dixon-Smith went against the grain in the governor’s race, casting his vote for Independent Robert Sarvis.
Phil Nichols, who works in technology for Stafford County schools, said he usually votes Republican, but he just couldn’t go with either of the major parties in this election.
The 41-year-old didn’t have a lot of information on Sarvis, but said he voted the way he did to avoid “putting a criminal or someone I see as a fascist into office.” He considers Terry McAuliffe to be the criminal and Ken Cuccinelli the fascist.
“I used to be a Republican, but I just can’t get behind people telling people how to live,” he said. “And I can’t vote for a liberal; I just can’t give away my freedoms.”
On the local front, Nichols voted for Belman for supervisor and Mark Kitta for the School Board.
Melissa Cooke, also voting at Dixon-Smith Middle School, said she sided with Belman.
“I liked the interview he gave,” she said, “and he seemed to be reasonable and I liked his opinions and stances.”
As far as the statewide campaigns, Cooke voted “pretty much all Democrats. They all have politics I agree with.”
Sarah Parton, a 51-year-old teacher at Fauquier High School, and her son, Justin Parton, 25, each voted the Republican ticket.
She didn’t like McAuliffe’s fiscal ideas.
“I’m a teacher and I didn’t like what was coming down the pike with McAuliffe,” she said. “Where’s he getting his tax money from?”
At Conway, Maureen O’Neill said she primarily voted Republican. As far as the local races, she voted for Bohmke.
Dispatch from the polls: Hugh Mercer Elementary in Fredericksburg
A sampling of early voters at Hugh Mercer Elementary School in Fredericksburg indicates that the government shutdown and the battle over President Obama’s healthcare reform have impacted statewide and local elections.
Shortly after casting her votes at the city school, LaTrenda Adgers, a Fredericksburg resident and United States Postal Service employee, said she vote for Democrats across the board.
“I feel like Democrats are for the people,” she said, pointing out that she thinks Republicans used the government shutdown to make a political point. “They did not have the peoples’ best interest at heart.”
Ryan Dumond, on the other hand, voted a Republican ticket. The 24-year-old Washington-D.C. firefighter said Democrats and Republicans alike are to blame for the government shutdown. While he wasn’t directly affected by the shutdown, his father and brother, who work as government contractors, didn’t work during the impasse.
Dumond voted Republican because he likes the job current Gov. Bob McDonnell has done. Plus, he said he has always voted Republican.
Dumond, like several other voters, also pointed out that the nature of campaigns, specifically the governor’s race, was disappointing. He said they focused on attack ads rather than promoting candidates’ positions.
The other voters interviewed Tuesday morning in Fredericksburg voted the Democratic ticket.
Arthur Noll, a government contractor who’d just gotten off a midnight shift, was definitively swayed by the government shutdown
“I don’t think I’ll ever get over the crazy damned Tea Party people shutting down the government,” said the 66-year-old contractor for Homeland Security, who wasn’t affected by the shutdown. “I do blame them primarily for it…. It’s nasty business when you start affecting peoples’ lives."