Election Day Voting Underway in Area

Minor issues at Prince William polls, Manassas sees higher than expected turnout

It is midterm Election Day today across the country and here locally voting is off to a swift start.

People were lined up at many polling places throughout the area. The polls opened this morning at six o’clock and many people on their way to work stopped at polls to cast their votes.

There are several key races, including who will hold one of the two Virginia U.S. Senate seats for the next six years – incumbent Democrat Mark Warner or Republican Ed Gillespie. In the House of Representatives, Republican Barbra Comstock faces Democrat John Foust for control of Virginia’s 10th District to include western Prince William and Manassas. The seat opened when Republican Frank Wolf announced his retirement.

Voters in Virginia’s 1st District in Prince William and Stafford counties will also decide to vote for incumbent Republican Rob Wittman or Democrat challenger Norm Mosher.

There are more than 250,000 registered voters on the rolls for this election in Prince William County. Electronic voting machines are used at all of the county’s 92 precincts, and there were some polling machine calibration problems earlier this morning that have now been resolved, said General Registrar Roky Suleman.

The problems were confined to the county’s Buckland Mills precinct and did not prevent anyone from voting. Suleman did not have information to indicate voter turnout is larger than normal.

In Manassas, however, it is. More voters than were expected have turned out to vote at the city’s five precincts.

“Things are going great, and the turnout numbers were maybe a little higher than expected,” said Sarah Cioffi, the city’s deputy voter registrar.

Manassas and Manassas Park residents will also vote for open seats on each of the respective City Councils.

All voters in Virginia must now have a valid photo ID to be able to vote this year. Cioffi said a voter who was unable to obtain a drivers license prior to today’s election went to the Manassas Voter Registration Office where they were able to obtain a temporary photo voter ID card and was able to use it to vote today.

Cioffi urged anyone without proper photo ID to come to the city’s elections office at 9025 Center Street in Manassas to obtain a temporary ID. A hardcopy ID will be mailed to voters later, said Cioffi.

Stafford County General Registrar Greg Riddlemoser described voting turnout as steady in the county’s 27 polling stations. The county will tabulate just how many voters turned out to vote after the polls close at 7 p.m.