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Comment from JGFitzgerald
Time: June 8, 2009, 11:19 am

A note about the polls that were overflowing in November: they won’t be quite as busy June 9. Estimates are the turnout will be five percent of what it was in November. Various reasons, but partly that the get-out-the-vote effort (GOTV, as it’s known) is handled mostly by the candidates. There’s no generic group urging voting as a civic duty, and most of the traditional Democratic groups, including the party itself, leave it to the campaigns.

Turnout projections range from an unlikely six percent (300,000 voters statewide) to as few as 3.75, or about 190,000. Turnout is generally higher in urban areas, so that might be weighted toward the Urban Crescent. Maybe fewer than 1,000 in the ‘Burg and Rockingham County.

Comment from Mike
Time: June 8, 2009, 11:21 am

Please come out and support Creigh Deeds. Creigh is from Bath County and has been the closest thing we have had to a local democrat in Richmond. Ask anyone who lobbies Richmond. Creigh treats Valley constituents as his own even if you live in the Republican hinterlands. Creigh has consistently represented Valley progressives interests in Richmond and has taken on such politically difficult issues as non-partisan judicial appointments and redistricting. Creigh is best positioned to run against McDonnell in the fall and is our best change at keeping the Governor’s mansion.

Comment from Renee
Time: June 8, 2009, 3:40 pm

I plan to vote in my first governor primary ever :)

Seems like it’s important this time around since VA went Democrat for president and the nominee may actually stand a chance against McDonnell, despite reports to the contrary.

Pingback from – of primary voting. « the state
Time: June 8, 2009, 4:44 pm

[...] WordPress.com – of primary voting. Monday, 8 June 2009, 15:43 Filed under: -of jhumphrey, -of localism, -of politik Brent Finnegan is voting in the primary tomorrow. Are you? http://hburgnews.com/2009/06/08/tuesdays-primary/. [...]

Comment from zen
Time: June 8, 2009, 8:56 pm

“Bob McDonnell, our current attorney general, in November.”

Not so. He resigned in Feb to campaign for Governor.

Comment from BANDIT
Time: June 9, 2009, 6:33 am

…why hasn’t there been anything mentioned about our local elections in Harrisonburg?…do you even know whose up for re-election???

Comment from Josh
Time: June 9, 2009, 8:19 am

I went to Stone Spring Elementary a few minutes before 8am. It was a ghost-town. I was the only one there voting and was #5 when I turned in my paper ballot (I don’t know how many people voted electronically).

Comment from Brent Finnegan
Time: June 9, 2009, 8:28 am

Good call, zen. Fixed.

Comment from Tom
Time: June 9, 2009, 9:50 am

I voted. It took, maybe, five minutes and I was on my way.
I don’t think we need to focus so much on electability, but to pick the right candidate and then focus on getting out the vote against McDonnel. I read over each candidate’s website and took the Richmond Times Dispatch voting guide http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/local_govtpolitics/2009_democratic_primary/
and found that the only one I liked was Brian Moran. We will see.

Comment from Karl
Time: June 9, 2009, 11:17 am

Trips to the Simms and Waterman precinct’s proved very lonely this morning.

Comment from Barkley Rosser
Time: June 9, 2009, 2:07 pm

I voted at Spotswood and was the only one there. The folks there said that they were quite lonely.

Comment from Renee
Time: June 9, 2009, 5:02 pm

There were 2 other people voting when I went to Keister in the afternoon.

Bandit, there were no local candidates on our ballot in Harrisonburg – only the primaries for Governor and Lt. Gov.

Comment from Laura
Time: June 9, 2009, 8:53 pm

At 7:45, fivethirtyeight.com called this race for R. Creigh Deeds.

Comment from Brent Finnegan
Time: June 10, 2009, 7:37 am

Deeds swept the nomination statewide. Wagner and Marrow won, too. The DNR reports that Harrisonburg and Rockingham went overwhelmingly for Deeds. And by “overwhelmingly” I don’t mean the turnout, which was less then 5 percent in the city, and even lower in the county.

Comment from Bubby Hussein, Hillbilly Sheikh
Time: June 10, 2009, 9:50 am

Going against the tide, Signer overwhelmingly took Harrisonburg, kept it close in Rockingham, Highland, Page, Bath County and in the City of Staunton… tied it in Augusta ! This bright young man has a base in the Valley!

Comment from Karl
Time: June 11, 2009, 8:54 am

I’d like to see some posts from folks that voted in the Presidential election, but not the primary and tell us why they didn’t this time around. Perhaps I’m looking more for Dems more than Pubs, since the latter didn’t have a horse in the race.

Comment from Josh
Time: June 11, 2009, 10:07 am

Karl, I’m not the population you were asking for, but I almost fell into that category.

I only voted because I didn’t care for McAuliffe. If it was only an election deciding between Deeds and Moran, I would have likely stayed home.

(This is similar to how I voted “anyone but Hillary” in the presidential primary.)

Comment from Emmy
Time: June 11, 2009, 11:15 am

I didn’t vote but not on purpose. I made it all the way home with my kids before it clicked in my head that I forgot to do it. Then it started pouring. I didn’t want to take them back out in a thunderstorm.

Comment from Ray
Time: June 12, 2009, 1:15 am

I voted in the Presidential election but not the primary because I believe only members of the party holding the primary should vote in them. Why should people that aren’t members of the party have a stake in choosing the nominee that’s going to carry the standard for said party?

Actually, I don’t know why the state has to be the one to run the primaries anyway. As I said before it’s an election to establish the parties’ standard bearers so why don’t they rent out 3 or 4 schools on a Saturday (like churchs do for Sunday services) and have their party members come there to vote? Names could be checked against membership rolls and anyone not on them could be turned away. This would allow the nominee to be chosen by the actual party members.

Comment from Karl
Time: June 12, 2009, 7:22 am

Can we bring out of the low turnout for the Democratic primary that Obama’s dynamic campaign was more about him than the party for many voters? I understand primary voter turnout is always low, but I would have assumed that Dems were geared up after November and would stay involved at a high level.

This may sound strange, but I wonder if the terrible perception of George Bush was bad for the Dems moving forward. Was he so bad that any Dem would have won and the party didn’t really gain the full future benefits of winning the whitehouse because even many Pubs couldn’t cast a vote for their own party last November?

Comment from Josh
Time: June 12, 2009, 8:37 am

Ray,

Why should a party exclude potential members, or discount the opinion of the public at-large? How will a party grow and change over time if they don’t incorporate non-party opinions?

If the Democratic Party loved McAuliffe, but he was totally un-electable, isn’t it a great thing the public was able to weed him out in advance?

Comment from Laura
Time: June 15, 2009, 7:47 am

I just saw this strange video on Alternet called “Terry McAuliffe’s Political Funeral” . I’d love to hear how someone thought that all those signs were a good idea. I had no major problems with the guy (I just preferred another candidate), but that is disgusting.

Comment from Jeremy Aldrich
Time: June 15, 2009, 8:12 am

Laura, I think that video was taken during the Shad Planking, which is a bizarre Virginia political ritual.

Comment from JGFitzgerald
Time: June 15, 2009, 12:00 pm

Gx,

The Shad Planking is like a barbecue, except that the main dish is shad, nailed to a plank by the Wakefield Ruritan Club, and cooked for about eight hours next to a slow fire. Long-time attendees tend to throw out the shad and eat the board.