Family Affair: Mother Fegegta Workie (far right) brings her children, (right to left) Abaineh Haile, Naomi Haile and Helina Haile to the poll with her to watch her cast her vote for the first female presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. They ran into their “auntie,” Essey Workie, who was also voting (far left). Photo by Fallon Forbush.
Great Falls — Fairfax County expected thousands of voters to cast their ballot at the Great Falls Library off Georgetown Pike yesterday.
The library was the polling location for the Hickory precinct in Great Falls where approximately 400 absentee ballots were cast before voting began, according to Candace Bovee, the poll’s election chief.
There are a total of 3,461 voters registered in the precinct, so the county’s Office of Elections expected nearly 3,000 voters to pass through its doors by the time it closed at 7 p.m.
“I think it’s a little busier today,” says Bovee. “We’ve gone through a lot of ballots and we’ve been pretty steady.”
She has volunteered as the election chief for the polling location for the last three elections and has been an election officer three times before that.
There were 15 people in line when the poll opened at 6 a.m., which grew to 73 people by 7 a.m. By 8:30 a.m., there were 527 voters, including three provisional voters, who cast a ballot.
The county had 243 poll locations open to accommodate the 682,990 residents who were registered to vote in time for the election.
While the presidential candidates vied for all of America’s support, Great Falls voters’ ballots included a U.S. House of Representatives race between LuAnn Bennett (D) and Barbara Comstock (R); two proposed state constitutional amendments; a meals tax referendum and three bond referendums.