As of this morning, the polls around the county for the Arlington County Board special election are reporting very light turnout.
“I don’t know if it’s the dreary weather, but it’s been quiet,” Arlington County General Registrar Linda Lindberg told ARLnow.com. “There’s no waiting at the polls in Arlington.”
Lindberg said the final returns for absentee balloting aren’t in yet — the registrar’s office hadn’t received its mail yet — but expects about 2,000 absentee ballots to be counted tonight, which is “definitely high for a special election, but I’m not sure how that’s translating to turnout.”
At Barrett Elementary School in Buckingham, election officer Nels Running said there were about 40 total voters in the first three hours of voting.
“Some people will wait for the sun to start shining,” he told ARLnow.com. “Most elections there’s a rush at midday until about 1:00 p.m. and then another from 4:30 to 7:00.”
Many of the voters who have turned out so far are voting die hards. One voter at Barrett, who only wanted to give his first name, Mick, to a reporter, said he’d voted in every election since he was 21, even one year when he broke his back and “my brother had to carry me.”
“It’s not really an election in Arlington since you know who’s going to win,” Mick said. “I’m a conservative, so my guy never wins.”