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Fairfax turnout approaches 80 percent
Fairfax County voters turned out in droves on November 4 to vote for presidential and local candidates.
Voter turnout in the county fell just short of a staggering 80 percent, landing at 78.2 percent, according to the Fairfax County Registrar.
Many voters took to the polls early on election day and were pleasantly surprised at their wait times.
Verne Wattawa, Chief Election Officer for the Herndon High School voting precinct, estimated that about 600 voters had cast their ballots at that location by 8 a.m.
At Stone Hill Middle School in Centreville around 11 a.m., the short lines were moving quickly.
At nearby Poplar Tree Elementary School in Chantilly, 1,500 voters out of 2,700 had come through by 11:45 a.m., said Chief Election Officer Virginia Olander. The precinct had experienced long lines in the morning, but no significant problems.
"I like that they had the choice of the paper ballot versus the machine," said Dana Zakula, who said she hardly had to wait in line to vote.
In-person absentee voting played a major role in the shorter-than expected waits at many polling places.
More than 107,000 absentee votes were cast by Fairfax County's 665,674 registered voters. Overall, according to the Fairfax County Registrar, a total of 520,278 votes were cast in the county.
Young Virginia voters continued to flood the polls throughout the day, playing a major part in turning the state blue for the first time in 44 years.
In a key Virginia Tech polling location in Blacksburg, more than 5,600 people, some of whom were Virginia Tech students from Fairfax County, were registered to vote at precinct E1.
The polling place is 6.5 miles away from campus at a tiny church located off the main road. There is no street sign marking the turnoff to the one-lane road, but voters found it all the same. There were an estimated 700 people – mostly students -- in line at 7 p.m. when the polls closed.
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