Nelson County voters cast ballots

Fewer Nelson County voters turned out on election day this year, compared to last year’s record-setting balloting, but some precincts were busier than others.

Jaqueline Clark, the general registrar for Nelson, said that 26 percent of registered voters in the county had turned out by noon Tuesday and that out of the more than 10,400 active registered voters in the county, fewer than 3,000 had cast ballots.

The polling places in the Central District at Tuckahoe Primary School in Nellysford and in the North District at the Rockfish Valley Volunteer Fire Department Building in Afton had “been fairly busy all morning,” she said.

But smaller polling places, such as the Montebello Volunteer Fire Department building and the Gladstone Volunteer Rescue Squad, were “sparse.”

The number of registered voters is down slightly from last year as well. In 2008, Nelson County boasted 10,718 registered voters and in 2009, that number has dropped to 10,582.

Nelson County polls opened at 6 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m.

Along with voting for the next governor of Virginia, Nelson voters are casting ballots for candidates for local posts.

But the only contested race on the local ballot is in the Central District.

Incumbent and Democrat Connie Brennan, of Faber, is seeking re-election to the Central District Board of Supervisors seat she has held for eight years.

Her opponent is Republican-backed E. “Dudley” Campbell, of Roseland.

The original Republican candidate was Campbell’s son, Edwin D. Campbell II, who dropped out of the race in August because of plans to move out of the county.

The Central District has 2,669 active registered voters and by noon, nearly 700 had shown up to the polls.

North District Supervisor Tommy Harvey, of Afton, was running for re-election as well.

East District Supervisor Allen Hale, of Shipman, and the current Board of Supervisors chairman, was also running for re-election.

Mary S. Cunningham, of Afton, was running uncontested for the North District’s vacated seat on the Nelson County School Board.

Amy Clark Snapp, of Schuyler, was running uncontested for the East District’s vacated seat on the Nelson County School Board.

Margaret Clair, of Faber, was running uncontested for the Central District’s vacated seat on the Nelson County School Board.

Nelson County is one of 16 localities in Virginia this year that failed to meet the Virginia State Board of Election’s deadline to mail out absentee ballots for military and overseas voters.

Clark said a name change for her office may have been the reason she didn’t hear of the 11 absentee ballot applications until late September.

In March, Clark took over the position from then-registrar Lisa Wooten, and updated her name in the election agency’s system, but she said she only recently learned she wasn’t on the daily e-mail list of approved absentee ballot applications.

Clark said two of the 11 absentee ballot applications that were late being mailed out were returned in person at the polls on Nov. 3, and both individuals, who are no longer in the military, voted by provisional ballot.

The state elections board is investigating why the local election offices, out of the 134 cities and counties, missed the Sept. 18 deadline.

Late absentee ballots also were reported in the cities of Colonial Heights, Manassas, Poquoson, Richmond, Suffolk and Williamsburg and in the counties of Caroline, Greene, Essex, Northumberland, Montgomery, Richmond, Shenandoah, Smyth and Westmoreland.