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Accomack: library vote makes turnout brisk

Carol Vaughn
cvvaughn@dmg.gannett.com
  • Accomack voters turned out in large numbers to vote on a public library referendum.
  • In Wachapreague, 200 of 766 registered voters cast a ballot by noon.
  • In Onancock, 575 of the town's 1,998 registered voters had cast their ballot before 1 p.m.
  • It was the first election in Accomack using electronic poll books.

American flags lined Main Street in Wachapreague as voters turned out in large numbers on Election Day to cast their ballots in a referendum on a bond issue for a new public library.

The question on the ballot reads, "Shall Accomack County incur debt in the amount of $3,500,000 by issuing general obligation bonds to pay a portion of the cost of a new library?"

The village has 766 registered voters, and 200 of them had cast a ballot by noon. The early surge caused election officials to call and ask the Voter Registrar's office in Accomac for additional "I Voted" stickers to hand out.

"We clearly are on a record course," said Wachapreague poll worker Paul Berge.

Turnout was heavy for a non-Presidential election, at many of Accomack County's 17 precincts, according to Voter Registrar Patricia White.

White called voter turnout "very good" mid-morning, after hearing from officials at precincts around the county. "I don't think anybody's bored."

It was the first election in the county in which election officials used electronic poll books, and also the first in which voters were required to present photo identification under a new state law.

Three registered voters who did not have any form of photo identification came into the Voter Registrar's office the day before Election Day to have one made, but she had not heard of any voters who had to cast a provisional ballot at a precinct because they came to vote and did not have White said.

The turnout for the last Congressional elections, in 2010, was 57 percent in Accomack County. This year's election includes a Senate race as well as the House of Representatives seat.

In Onancock, 575 of the town's 1,998 registered voters had cast their ballot before 1 p.m.

"It is outstanding," for a mid-term election, said election official Peggy Brown, who has worked at various precincts in Accomack County since the 1970s and at Onancock for the last decade.

Andrea Benda, a volunteer with the Vote Yes Committee stationed outside the Onancock polling place, said she was "totally excited about folks coming out."

This was not Benda's first election involving a library bond. She was president of the library board in Telluride, Colorado, 14 years ago when a similar bond issue was on the ballot there.

In a town of some 2,000 residents, the issue passed by a two-vote margin.

"We had five recounts," Benda said, noting since the library was built in Telluride, the annual visitor count to the library there has reached 250,000.

"It was a labor of passionate love, just like all the people involved in this is," said Benda.

"It starts here; it starts with something like this," she said of the referendum, predicting that no matter which way the referendum vote goes, the issue of building a new library will not go away.

"This is such a groundswell of public support that no matter what happens, this is going to be here...It can't be stopped."

cvvaughn@dmg.gannett.com

757-787-1200, ext. 115

On Twitter @cvvaughnESN
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