25 Photos, 28,000 Voters: Seven Day Firehouse Primary #VA04
Turnout high, lines long. Over 28,000 voted. With only eight polling places for a quickly put together seven day congressional firehouse primary campaign, lines were long. But the good news about what may be the shortest congressional primary campaign in Virginia’s history, is that the voters responded. This was likely a result of the breakneck effort by the campaigns to get the word out. Voters appeared in the thousands — over 28,000.
In Chesterfield, the ballot box was so full someone had to hold the lid down on it. People were still voting from their cars in Petersburg at 8 p.m. Over 28,000 is a surprising number given that the entire campaign was less than ten days.
When Congressman Norm Sisisky died in office on March 29, 2001 a special election was held on June 19, 2001 to fill the fourth congressional seat. The special election for the fourth district will take place on Feb. 21, 2023.
📷 Paulette Shipman-Singleton took many of the photographs below.
MICROWAVE CAMPAIGN. The four campaigns were forced to put everything together in less than ten days. But two campaigns, State Senator Jennifer McClellan and State Senator Joe Morrissey, were able to launch radio ads and Robo calls. McClellan’s campaign executed lit drops and a successful social media strategy displaying their canvassing activity and more.
But to borrow a phrase from Richmond Del. Delores McQuinn, this was a “microwave” campaign. What was witnessed over the last seven days was a condensed seven day contest involving four candidates that results from a lack of detailed guidelines for special elections in the Virginia Code. A pending lawsuit by one of the candidates on the ballot in today’s firehouse may help address that lack of specificity.
THE RESULTS. The counting of the ballots will take place tomorrow, Dec. 21, starting at 10 a.m. It’s unclear how long the count will take but 28,000 votes could possibly take more than eight hours. The high turnout likely indicates that the nationalized efforts around Sen. McClellan’s campaign were successful but that can’t be confirmed until the vote count is completed.
What does a surprisingly large turnout seven day campaign on the third day of Hanukkah five days before Christmas mean? If McClellan wins in a landslide what does that say about which candidates should be platformed by Democrats in the future? More news soon…
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