A poll worker wearing protective equipment checked a drive-up voter outside the Ashland Town Hall on Tuesday. The town held elections for three council seats.
signs cover the doors leading inside the Ashland Town Hall in Ashland, VA Tuesday, May 19, 2020 as the small town held a municipal election.
Ashland Mayor Steve Trivett checks his phone outside the Ashland Town Hall in Ashland, VA Tuesday, May 19, 2020 as the small town held a municipal election.
Poll worker Janet Straus, left, wearing protective equipment, waits while Darry Edwards, right, votes inside the Ashland Town Hall in Ashland, VA Tuesday, May 19, 2020 as the small town held a municipal election.
A poll worker wearing protective equipment heads out to checks a drive-up voter outside the Ashland Town Hall in Ashland, VA Tuesday, May 19, 2020 as the small town held a municipal election.
Ashland Curbside Voting
James Scanlon debated in recent days whether to go to the polls Tuesday.
On one side was the public health risk and the potential for large crowds, an environment that could induce the spread of a virus that has killed nearly 800 people in Virginia who were 70 or older.
Yet Scanlon, a history professor emeritus at Randolph-Macon College who turns 80 on Wednesday, and other voters in Ashland felt a sense of civic responsibility to go to the polls. Extensive health precautions were in place for a town council election in which six candidates vied for three seats.
“That’s why I came,” Scanlon said after voting in the nonpartisan race. “I don’t remember anything like this COVID-19 crisis, but it’s important to vote.”
Across Virginia, thousands of voters turned out Tuesday for municipal elections in 115 Virginia cities and towns, including Ashland and Louisa. Local and state election officials put in place various measures, including curbside voting, in hopes that voters could safely cast their ballots with Virginia only partially reopened and large crowds still banned.
In Ashland, incumbents Kathy Abbott and Steve Trivett won re-election to the council, according to unofficial election results from the Virginia Department of Elections. Anita Barnhart received the most votes and will be the only new member of the council. Roughly 100 more votes were cast in person (751) than through absentee ballots, according to the unofficial results.
In Louisa, Jessi Lassiter, Danny Carter and Sylvia Rigsby all won election, as the three candidates for the three seats that were up for grabs. According to the unofficial election results, 384 absentee votes were cast, compared with just 26 in-person.
Gov. Ralph Northam had proposed moving the elections to the November general election, when Virginia is projected to be on the other side of its COVID-19 peak, but state lawmakers rejected that plan last month. Northam and election officials recommended that residents vote absentee. While many used that option, thousands still went to their local precinct.
At Ashland’s municipal building, curbside voting was available on Thompson Street and Hanover Avenue. Poll workers, six total at the precinct, took ballots out to residents, who filled them out in their vehicles. Those who went inside were greeted by workers wearing medical gowns, masks, gloves and face shields. Green “X” marks showed where it was OK to stand.
Hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes sat on tables. Voters wore masks and kept the folders their ballots came in and the pens they were given to fill them out. Polling booths were routinely cleaned.
“It’s like walking into a medical unit,” said Bill Wittig, who voted in Ashland about 10 a.m.
Said voter Linwood Attkisson: “They’re doing the right thing. You can’t be too cautious.”
All of it was by design.
“We’ve tried to cover all the bases and take every precaution we could,” said David Howell, the elections chief at the precinct, who called Tuesday a test run for the primaries scheduled for June 23.
Outside the building, Town Council candidates chatted among themselves with yard signs advocating their election surrounding them.
“Thank you for voting,” they said to those walking inside — the normal mingling that local elections bring replaced by social distancing.
Said Abbott: “It’s definitely a weird [election].”
Trivett encouraged people to vote for him and to “Please Vote May 5th.”
The elections were initially set for that day, but Northam pushed them back two weeks as the virus continues to spread in Virginia. While the House of Delegates signed off on the governor’s plan to move the elections to November, the state Senate didn’t, leading Northam to delay them as long as he could under Virginia law.
“Someone shouldn’t have to choose between their health and voting,” Northam said Friday.
