The 55 percent of registered voters who turned out to vote in Tuesday’s election was the highest percentage turnout in an non-presidential year since the early 1990s, according to figures from the county’s elections office.
It was the highest turnout in a gubernatorial election year in Arlington since 1993, when 56 percent of registered voters turned out as Republican George Allen triumphed over Democratic nominee and then-Attorney General Mary Sue Terry.
You’ve heard, by now, the big news over at DCist. Exactly one week ago, a scrappy, vital link in the increasingly fragile local news ecosystem was unceremoniously snuffed out by a union-busting billionaire.
I’m deeply proud of the work we accomplished at DCist in my two-year tenure as editor-in-chief, which was made possible by the dedication and creativity of multitudes of writers who came before us. The archives of the site serve as a record of a growing city, an encyclopedia of 13 years of life in the nation’s capital that was by turns hilarious, enraging, informative, and never boring.
ACPD Urges Caution on Roads As Days Get Shorter — “The days are getting shorter and there’s increased pedestrian and bicyclist traffic after dark,” the Arlington County Police Department said in a public service tweet last night. “Slow down, remain alert and proceed with care and caution.” [Twitter, Twitter]
History: Fort Myer During World War I — A Library of Congress collection includes 100-year-old photographs showing what life was like on Fort Myer during World War I. The photos show a visit from President Woodrow Wilson and the famous “Three Sisters” radio towers. [Pentagram]
The closure of DCist and its sister sites in other cities last week was a big loss for local journalism.
For hundreds of thousands of monthly readers, DCist was a one-stop shop for news about the District. It also featured the work of talented local writers who covered arts and culture in the city.
The 26-year-old Maryland man had allegedly stolen items from a store in the Pentagon City mall and pushed away two security guards during his getaway. He then ran outside and tried to hail a taxicab but ended up continuing to flee on foot, according to the police report.
After jumping a fence into a Pentagon parking lot, he was taken into custody by Pentagon Force Protection Agency officers and handed over to ACPD. More from the crime report:
Heartened by Democratic gains in the Virginia House of Delegates in last night’s election, local Democrats are hopeful for progress in Richmond on issues important to Arlington County.
Democrats had picked up 14 seats in the House on Tuesday, with the remaining four seats subject to re-counts and late results.
The incident started around 3:15 p.m. Monday, when police were called to a business on the 3400 block of Washington Blvd in Virginia Square — the block includes a barbecue restaurant, a grocery store and a convenience store — for a “report of a person drunk in public.”
The woman, identified as 42-year-old Elena Bolonina, was so drunk that medics transported her to the hospital, according to an Arlington County Police Department crime report. That is where the real trouble reportedly started.
(Updated 9:50 p.m.) Arlington Democrats celebrated a triumphant election night for its candidates for Arlington County Board and School Board, as well as all members of the state-level Democratic ticket.
With all precincts reporting, Democratic nominee Erik Gutshall won the race for County Board with 62.82 percent of the vote. Monique O’Grady, the Arlington County Democratic Committee’s endorsee for School Board, took 70.56 percent.
(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) More than 2,000 Dominion customers are without power in the Ballston area this Election Day afternoon.
The outage was first reported just before 3:45 p.m. Some 2,063 Dominion customers in Ballston, Virginia Square and Ashton Heights are without electricity.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management is warning that some voters are receiving calls falsely telling them their polling place has changed.
In a tweet this afternoon, VDEM said these calls are false, and that registered voters can confirm their polling place online.
(Updated at 2:10 p.m.) Arlington County could today see record voter turnout for a gubernatorial election year.
As of noon, Arlington election officials were reporting approximately 31 percent turnout at the polls. Another 8 percent of registered voters had cast absentee ballots, bumping up the total, midway through election day, to nearly 40 percent.
A man tried and failed to rob a local pharmacy, and the resulting police response led to an arrest but not of the suspect.
ARLnow reported on the robbery and the subsequent police search for the suspect as it happened this past Thursday.
