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City voters hurry to get in out of the rain outside the Walker Grant Middle School polling station in Fredericksburg yesterday morning.
Fredericksburg election officials give ballots to voters at the New City Fellowship polling place in Ward 4.
At Bowling Green polling place, nearly a third of the 3,000 registered voters cast ballots by midmorning yesterday, officials said.
Mel Padgett (left) and Stan Raymond gather ballots collected from the tabulator |
By DAN TELVOCK
The complete darkness at Courthouse Elementary School made it difficult to see the faces of three Spotsylvania women who woke up at 3 a.m. to be the first in line to vote.
Rose Warnsing, Betty Knauf and Gloria Stewart, all retired, arrived at 4 a.m. and were the first ones to cast their ballots when the polls opened at 6.
If the presidential election had ended then, Democrat Barack Obama would have defeated Republican John McCain 3-0 in Virginia.
"We wanted to make sure we do our civic duty and get here on time," Warnsing said. "Obama's going to win. We've had enough. We need change --serious change."
But those three were hardly the only ones out early to vote. And McCain was leading in Spotsylvania with the majority of the precinct reporting last night.
State election officials said they believe 70-80 percent of Virginia's 5 million voters cast ballots yesterday. Turnout was expected to top 70 percent in the Fredericksburg area.
At 6 a.m., the line at the Dawn School in Caroline County's Reedy Church district was through the door and out to the highway. It was so crowded that a man crossing the street to get to the polls was hit by a car that was backing out.
The man was taken to the hospital, but his injuries weren't believed to be serious.
That may have qualified as the biggest problem at any local precinct. Poll workers throughout the region reported only minor glitches despite the heavy turnout.
In Stafford County, some voters waited more than two hours to cast their ballot yesterday morning. Mary Walker, 43, said voting for the candidate whom she agreed with on the issues was worth the wait.
"My vote counts," she said as she stood outside Gayle Middle School in the rain. "It's easy to say forget it. But it's important to be here."
The lines at Spotsylvania's three busiest precincts--Courthouse Elementary, Smith Station Elementary and Lee Hill Community Center--stretched hundreds of people long before the polls opened and for nearly two hours afterwards.
By 8:30 a.m., most of those lines disappeared as the turnout slowed to a trickle. Poll workers expected another big wave late in the evening, but many commuters apparently left work early. As the 7 p.m. closing time approached, the last few stragglers were able to walk right in and vote.
A Democratic precinct captain at Courthouse Elementary said she has never seen so many people show up so early to vote in any race.
AN IMPORTANT ELECTION
Voters had different concerns that led them to the polls, from the economy and health care to abortion and the right to bear arms. But many shared the same urgency voiced by Peggy Barnett.
The 70-year-old Stafford resident, said she had voted in every election possible since she turned 18, "but this is the most important."
"The difference in opinions on the issues are so important," the McCain supporter said. "We need someone who can fix our economy and support our troops."
Unlike Barnett, 76-year-old Philomena Cutler of Spotsylvania was voting for the first time. She said she began keeping up with the campaign after her children persuaded her to vote.
"I just kept watching all of the debates and everything and figured [Obama] was the best man," she said.
In North Stafford, Christine Begley, 20, also voted for the first time. And like Cutler, she decided to do so late in the process.
"I wasn't going to register until McCain put [Sarah] Palin on the ticket," she said. "So I decided to actually take the step. I couldn't let that go."
At Grafton Elementary School in Stafford, Crystal Dozier was also voting for the first time. She came out at 6 a.m., when the polls opened, but still had to wait more than an hour.
"I'm voting for change," she said. "I'm worried about the economy. Everything I make goes out."
Many voters traveled a long way to cast ballots. Nichole Carpenter was the first in line at Lake of the Woods Church, and she and her daughter, Sierra Ackerman, were joined immediately by Demetrius Brown.
Carpenter, who lives in LOW, said she "drove all the way from D.C." this morning, where she'd been staying with a sick daughter.
Brown, 22, drove from Fredericksburg to the Orange County subdivision where he used to live and where he's still registered, arriving at 4:44 am. to vote in his first presidential election.
some minor glitches
By the time the LOW polling place opened, 116 voters had lined up across the church parking lot. But the voting couldn't start until elections officials finally got their hands on the key that opened the voting machines. That vital piece of equipment had slipped through the cracks, but was brought from the registrar's office in the town of Orange, and voting started at 6:11 a.m.
"It was just an oversight of one of us," Registrar Dinah Waugh said, "but I'm not sure which one of us it was."
Most other problems reported in the area were similarly minor.
"Some voters, as usual, are going to the wrong precincts," Westmoreland County Registrar Kris Hicks said. "That's the biggest problem we've had."
At the Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department, the most serious irregularity involved the yellow color of sample ballots handed out by Democrats. Washington attorney Maureen O'Bryon, a volunteer with Virginia Protect the Vote, said an election official "told us that yellow was illegal and that they'd report us."
"Luckily, there have been very few people asking for sample ballots today," she said.
As recently as two weeks ago, the county registrar's office offered yellow sample ballots to voters who requested them, but now the approved color is green or blue.
At Gayle Middle School in southern Stafford, early-morning lines and a light rain prompted officials to open the gymnasium adjacent to the voting area. But according to an election official there, when some people tried to cut in line, heated verbal exchanges erupted and a sheriff's deputy had to be called in to calm tempers.
At the Colonial Beach Town Center, the only problem reported occurred after people had voted.
"A couple of people ran out without their "I Voted" stickers and we had to chase them down," said 17-year-old Chad Inscoe, one of three members of the Colonial Beach football team who were among the student volunteers who served as pages for the precinct.
--Staff writers Robin Knepper, Frank Delano, Portsia Smith, Edie Gross and Hugh Muir contributed to this report.
