Falls Church’s two new elected officials are likely to be on the dais when their respective bodies next convene.
Both the City Council and School Board will meet Tuesday evening (Nov. 12). And if paperwork requirements are met, the two victors in special elections will be sworn in before those meetings begin.
Laura Downs, a former School Board member and chair, on Nov. 5 defeated former Board of Zoning Appeals chair John Murphy to fill the remainder of the seat of City Council member Caroline Liam, who resigned earlier this year.
With her election, Downs will now be tasked to live up to her political platform.
“We as a community will need to balance growth with livability and affordability,” she said as a candidate. “These are not challenges but opportunities to continue to make Falls Church City one of the most desirable locations to attend school, live and work in the region.”
The term of Liam’s former seat runs through December 2025, meaning Downs would need to start campaigning in just a few months if she wishes to retain it.
Once she takes her place on the Council, Downs will find herself in the midst of a number of contentious issues, including whether the city should allow standalone accessory-dwelling units in single-family neighborhoods.
The pace and impact of development, transportation bottlenecks and housing needs were key components of the Downs-Murphy race.
In the other race, Anne Sherwood was unopposed in her bid for a vacant seat on the School Board. Her term too will run through the end of 2025; Sherwood will succeed David Ortiz, who resigned in June.
In both cases, the seats remained unoccupied rather than being filled with an appointee interim appointee.
Falls Church election results, which are unofficial and could evolve through final certification, are:
- Downs received about 58% of the vote to 41% for Murphy. The remaining 1% consisted of write-in votes.
- Anderson received about 96% of the vote in the School Board race, with 4% being write-ins.
Members of the Falls Church Electoral Board will meet Tuesday at 1 p.m. to conduct an election canvass and certify winners. To be eligible to start in office that day, Downs and Sherwood would also need to file state-mandated campaign-finance data in order to take their oaths.
City Council members are sworn in by City Clerk Celeste Heath. Paul Ferguson, the clerk of the Circuit Court for Arlington and Falls Church, swears in School Board members.
Harris, Kaine, Beyer All Take F.C. Vote: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris received 79.5% of the Falls Church vote, according to unofficial and evolving figures reported by the Virginia Department of Elections.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine received 79.9% of the Falls Church vote total in his race, with incumbent U.S. Rep. Don Beyer garnering 78.4%.
Voter Turnout Tops 80% in Little City: It wasn’t as high as one election official hoped, but Falls Church saw a voter turnout of at least 82% of active registered voters this year.
That percentage could climb through Tuesday, when the Falls Church Electoral Board holds a final election canvass and certifies the results.
Renee Andrews, secretary of the Electoral Board, said her hope was to break the turnout record of 87% set in 2012, but suggested that otherwise, things went well on Election Day.
“We had a successful election,” Andrews said during a brief procedural meeting this past Wednesday (Nov. 6).
Andrews praised the city’s four precinct chiefs — one for each of three in-person precincts and the other supervising early voting.
“They knew their stuff, they took charge,” she said.
