Even though the current Arlington County budget draft doesn’t include additional costs from this year’s change-ups at the ballot box, the county government is still planning to cover them.
Elections Director Gretchen Reinemeyer laid out budget pressures during an April 7 work session with Board members, voicing concern that her office’s proposed $2.18 million budget likely would not be robust enough to handle additional requirements this year.
County Manager Mark Schwartz assured County Board members that even though his budget plan didn’t include extra funding for potential extra elections, the funding would still be available.
“I treat them as one-time needs, because we can’t be sure what’s going to happen into the future,” he said.
The new fiscal year will see at least one unanticipated election, because the General Assembly moved state and local primaries from their traditional mid-June date to early August. The move was designed to accommodate new congressional districts if an April 21 statewide referendum passes.
Since early voting for the Aug. 4 primary begins in June, some of the costs associated with conducting the election will have to be covered within the existing fiscal year 2026 budget. Other expenses for the primary will shift into fiscal year 2027, a year that will also include the November general election and, likely, the June 2027 state and local primaries.
When it comes to elections, Schwartz said, “we’ve always met the need.”
“I’ve never said ‘no’ to Gretchen,” he said. “We’ll always work with her.”
The answer seemed to satisfy County Board members, at least for the upcoming fiscal year. But Board Chair Matt de Ferranti suggested he might be interested in revisiting the issue of funding for future years, to determine if more should be put in the office’s budget up front.
Arlington election officials have already contended with a special election this year after the resignation of Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39). Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won that race.
While the Arlington elections office largely is responsible for administering state and federal regulations, more than 90% of its funding comes from the local government.
And while state lawmakers have imposed new requirements on localities in recent years, most of that cost is borne at the local level, not funded by members of the General Assembly.
“To them, it has no fiscal impact because it doesn’t affect the state budget, it only affects your budget and our budget,” Arlington Electoral Board secretary Dominick Schirripa told Board members.
Later in the day on April 7, at an evening meeting of the Electoral Board, the three members of that body agreed to request regular gatherings between their chair, Kim Phillip, and one member each from the County Board and School Board.
Phillip, who made the suggestion, calls it a “board to board to board” collaboration. She said the goal was to ensure “we’re all on the same page and we’re all aware of what’s going on” regarding elections and their impact on government and school operations.
Overall, the plan is to “just have better communication, which I think is much needed,” Phillip said.
She added that there has been no formal agreement from either elected body to participate in the meeting, but she would reach out and make the request.
In other election and voting news:
DeVita to top Democratic primary ballot: Challenger James DeVita came out on top in the drawing for ballot order in the Aug. 4 Democratic County Board primary.
DeVita was chosen by lot at the April 7 Arlington Electoral Board meeting. Incumbent Matt de Ferranti will be listed second, with challenger Julie Farnam third.
Voters will select a Democratic County Board nominee from among those three via ranked-choice voting. The winner moves on to the Nov. 3 general election.
NAACP wants supporters to back referendum: Arlington NAACP President Rev. DeLishia Davis is calling on supporters of her organization to vote in the April 21 congressional redistricting referendum.
“We encourage all members of the Arlington branch and our community to stay informed, ask questions and make their voices heard at the ballot box. Fair representation begins with engaged voters,” Davis said in an email to the organization’s supporters.
The decision made by voters on April 21 “will affect our lives and many generations to come,” she wrote.
Although Davis did not directly ask NAACP supporters to back the referendum, she noted that the NAACP Virginia State Conference “encourages us to vote YES to ensure equitable representation for all communities in the state.”
Perennial candidate urges ‘no’ on redistricting referendum: Perennial protest candidate Audrey Clement is asking her supporters to vote against the April 21 congressional redistricting constitutional amendment.
“Democrats claim that the will of Virginia voters as expressed in the lopsided vote to end partisan gerrymandering in 2020 has not been subverted, because the gerrymander is temporary and the state will revert to bipartisan redistricting after the 2030 census,” Clement said in an email to her backers.
“This argument is bogus,” she said, and “it sets a dangerous precedent whereby any provision of the Virginia Constitution can be set aside for the political convenience of the party then in power.”
Clement has been running for local office for more than a dozen years, typically for County Board but in 2014 and 2018 for School Board. This year, she has qualified to be on the Nov. 3 ballot despite being physically attacked last month while collecting petition signatures.
