State and Local Offices on Ballot Today in Virginia
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Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. across Virginia today, when voters will make their picks for hundreds of local offices, decide whether to finance local bond packages and fill all 140 seats of the General Assembly.
Much is at stake. Voters will signal what direction government should take on such high-profile issues as immigration policy, improving traffic and managing growth. Their choices will indicate whether they approve of a transportation plan devised last winter by Republican lawmakers that funnels hundreds of millions to Northern Virginia roads and transit system but imposes steep new fees on the state's worst drivers. And in races in which candidates have focused on immigration policy, they will indicate whether they want action on this emotional issue at the state and local level.
In the legislature, partisan control is in the balance. Democrats need four seats to take over the Republican-held state Senate. Three of the hardest-fought Senate contests are in Fairfax County, where voters have been electing more Democrats recently and where three Republican incumbents -- Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, James K. "Jay" O'Brien and Ken Cuccinelli II -- face well-financed challengers.
Republicans hold a more distinct advantage in the House of Delegates -- 57 to 40, with three independents.
Prominent Democrats, including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, former governor Mark R. Warner and U.S. Sen. James Webb have been touring the state in recent days, rallying Virginians to vote for change.
Among the issues at stake, Kaine and others have said, are environmental policy, education funding (including the governor's proposal to expand pre-kindergarten programs) and efforts to improve mental-health services.
Republicans, generally, have focused on their business-friendly tax positions, their party's role in the transportation plan and their support of a crackdown on illegal immigrants, including such measures as refusing them state and local services and denying them bail when they are charged with crimes.
All told, more than 2,500 candidates are on the ballot across the state. But because there are no federal or statewide offices on the ballot, state election officials are anticipating low turnout. In 2003, the last off-year election, 31 percent of registered voters cast ballots. Locally, seats on county and school boards and several constitutional offices -- sheriffs, commonwealth's attorneys and court clerks -- are on the ballot.
For a complete guide to the elections, go to http:/
-- Amy Gardner
