Falls Church city leaders are asking the General Assembly to push back the statewide election-poll-opening time from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., while moving the closing time from 7 to 8 p.m.
A change would benefit those who serve as officers of election at polling places, who must be there about an hour before the opening. It also “would put Virginia in line with most of the surrounding states,” Falls Church Electoral Board members said in a letter to the City Council.
Go-along-to-get-along will not be the strategy of Arlington’s top prosecutor as the nation heads into the second Donald Trump era.
Instead, she is asking those on her side of the political aisle to embrace new ways of fighting back.
By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican who has embraced prosecutions against election fraud and other conservative causes, said Monday that he will seek reelection next year, dispelling speculation of a potential gubernatorial bid.
Things weren’t official until the Electoral Board convened Thursday evening (Nov. 14) to certify it, but Arlington’s vote count for the 2024 election is now complete.
“At this point it’s really just double-checking everything,” county elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer said at the start of a post-election Electoral Board meeting held Wednesday (Nov. 13).
Is 2025 the year Falls Church follows neighboring Arlington in enacting ranked-choice voting to elect its governing body?
It’s a question that will be answered in coming months by the seven-member City Council, whose members will have to address both logistical and philosophical issues before coming to a decision and setting the timetable.
Top Arlington County Board priorities including housing affordability and public safety will likely hold steady following JD Spain, Sr.’s victory last week.
However, Spain is seeking to distinguish himself from the Board’s current approach to government oversight, engagement and transparency.
Add Falls Church to the list of Northern Virginia localities where elected officials are worried about implications of Donald Trump’s victory.
“Things may very well change fairly dramatically,” City Council member David Snyder said last Wednesday (Nov. 6), the day after a national election that swept the former president back into office and saw Republicans potentially controlling both houses of Congress.
Final action on policies related to deer-culling, towing and residential-to-commercial conversions will be on the agenda when Arlington County Board members meet this Saturday (Nov. 16).
At the meeting, Board members are slated to take final action on zoning changes required to permit the use of sharpshooters to kill deer on public lands in the county.
Northern Virginia leaders, including those from Arlington, are in wait-and-see mode on what Republican victories at the national level could mean for local transit and transportation funding.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” said Kate Mattice, executive director of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC). “It’s just sort of watching the space and seeing what lands.”
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.
A combination of venting, defiance, group therapy and gearing up for future battles.
That’s how Arlington Democrats were coping Wednesday night (Nov. 6), just 24 hours the night after the party’s devastating losses at the national level.
They’ll be back in 2025, local leaders of the Forward Party declare.
Despite the party’s four endorsed candidates in Arlington and Alexandria races not pulling out any victories, the leadership said 2024 was just the start of a multi-year growth plan in Virginia.
