A slow trickle of voters made their ways to the polls Tuesday morning in a rain-soaked Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary that looked on track to meet dismal turnout predictions.
Some polling places around Northern Virginia were virtually empty even after the thunderstorms abated, with elections workers outnumbering the sparse voters who strolled in to cast their ballot.
Stiil, the Washington suburbs registered the highest turnout in the state, with about 10 percent, state elections officials said Tuesday afternoon. Turnout statewide was expected to run close to 5 percent of Virginia’s 5 million voters.
The day represented the culmination of three hard-fought, expensive campaigns. The party’s first contested governor’s primary since 1977 will decide whether State Sen. Creigh Deeds, former Alexandria Del. Brian Moran or former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe carries their party’s banner into the November election. The victor faces Bob McDonnell, a Republican who stepped down as attorney general to seek the governor’s mansion.
That the primary will be decided by a relatively small number of voters statewide grew increasingly clear as the day wore on.
Even at Greenspring Retirement Community in Springfield, a voter precinct that boasts some of the highest turnout in the state, a relatively sparse 225 voters had cast their ballots by late morning. Residents were split among the three candidates.
In the reliably Democratic Clarendon neighborhood in Arlington County, turnout was also languid. Only about 85 people had showed up to the Clarendon Education Center by mid-morning.
One woman, who would only identify herself as Jean, said she walked in undecided, but ultimately voted for McAuliffe, who she felt was the “middle ground” between Moran and Deeds. Her heart was for Moran, she said, but she felt he would have trouble in the general election. She was soured to Deeds by his pro-gun stance.
At Swanson Middle School near Falls Church, 108 voters had showed up by about 11 a.m. Casting a ballot for the former Clinton fundraiser was Surendra Singh.
“I’ve been watching all three of them … I thought McAuliffe is a better candidate,” he said.
Political observers and officials had expected turnout of a few hundred thousand statewide, out of about 5 million registered voters.
“Everything is trending to keep us within the 5 to 7 percent turnout that we think we’re going to be seeing today,” said Fairfax County General Registrar Rokey Suleman.
Storms knocked out power at two polling locations in Fairfax County, Suleman said. He said the outage did not disrupt voting, however, because the precinct staffs had paper ballots at the ready and kept one battery-operated voting machine at a time running until electricity was restored.
“If there would have been a heavier turnout, it would have been more of an issue,” he said.
In Moran’s home turf of Alexandria, signs for the candidate peppered Duke Street from Jordan Street to his law office in Alexandria, and in front of the office. But it was a different story in front of the Deporres Senior Center on Taney Avenue, where McAuliffe signs outnumbered Moran’s.
Still, Doug and Meredith Wade of Alexandria, standing outside the center, were supporting Moran.
“I think he’s going to do very well here because it’s his base,” Doug said. “He knows Northern Virginia — he’ll represent Northern Virginia.”
At 8:30 a.m., the center was basically empty — one or two voters moseyed in and out, and several campaign workers chatted, waiting for work.
Andrew Cariaso, the chief election officer for the St. Martin precinct, said the early-morning storm probably deterred people from coming out early. He added that they usually get a morning rush of voters before work, then another during lunch and another after work.
By 9 a.m., just 58 votes had been cast there, though that didn’t include absentee ballots, he said. Despite the small early returns, Cariaso said that there had been a large absentee turnout, both in-person and through the mail.
At Lane Elementary School in the Kingstowne area, Chief Election Officer Emil Regelman reported 46 voters as of 9:30 in the morning. It is “actually a tremendous turnout,” he said, given that the last off-season election drew 46 voters to the precinct all day.
“I am so proud when people come out to vote, even on a miserable day,” Regelman said.
Jesus Maldonando, a Lane voter, pulled the lever for McAuliffe.
“Bill Clinton supported him,” he said. “Yes, that was a big factor for me.”
David Sherfinski, Michael Neibauer and Chris Stirewalt contributed to this report.
