Initial results in Arlington’s Democratic County Board primary show a close race at the top.
JD Spain, Sr. leads the first round of vote tallying, with 33%, followed by Natalie Roy with 29% and Tenley Peterson with 23%.
James DeVita (10%) and Julie Farnam (6%) are a distant fourth and fifth, with only provisional and late-arriving mail-in ballots yet to be counted. Polls closed at 7 p.m.
The Tuesday night results reflect voters’ top choice to replace Libby Garvey on the Board. Arlington’s ranked choice system allowed voters to rank up to three candidate in order of preference.
With no candidate reaching 50% tonight, official results are not expected to be known until later in the week. A preliminary tabulation is scheduled for Friday, incorporating mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, while the final tabulation is set to take place Saturday.
A key issue in the primary was the Missing Middle housing ordinance, adopted by the County Board last year.
Spain and Peterson — who together currently have just over 55% of the votes — were generally supportive of the policy, which allowed smaller multi-family homes to be built in previously single-family home only neighborhoods, while Roy, DeVita and Farnam voiced opposition.
Turnout in the Democratic primary currently stands at 11%, according to the Virginia Dept. of Elections website. That number could rise as more votes are counted.
In the GOP U.S. Senate primary, turnout stands at just over 1% of registered Arlington voters. Hung Cao, the presumptive statewide winner, captured nearly 60% of the vote in Arlington, with the next-highest vote getter — Eddie Garcia — garnering 16% of the local vote.
🚨Details on times/location for the Democratic Primary County Board tabulation will be posted later this week! Read more about Ranked Choice Voting here: https://t.co/VGlubG9IQb#ArlingtonVotes #Vote2024 pic.twitter.com/HofIckCMwb
— Arlington Elections (@ArlingtonVotes) June 19, 2024
