Vienna At The Polls: Schools, Spending Drive Voters

Voters flowed steadily to Vienna polling places Tuesday morning, a good sign, election workers said, in a typically low-turnout, off-year race.

Schools issues are what drove many voters to the polls at Madison High School before 8 a.m. Tuesday, they said.

The Providence District Seat is uncontested, with incumbent running unopposed for re-election. But the Hunter Mill District Seat , and seven candidates are seeking the board's

Marcia Charin, a former FCPS teacher who now teaches in Loudoun County, said  it's important to put the right people in place at the head of such a large school system, facing tasks such and

"Our school system is huge ... we have 143 elementary schools, etcetera," Charin said. "For the quality our children get of service and the funding our state gets it's amazing what we can do. But we have had frozen salaries for two, three years. Those decisions were not easy for the school board to make. We were working with what we had ... I hope that people are really informed in their decision and pick the best people for this important position.

"I'm not happy with the way Fairfax County Public Schools is going. It's overcrowded, it needs more funding and needs smarter thinking about how to reward teachers and how to support them," said Natasha Perkins, a mother of young children.

In 2009 -- a year in which many local races were contested -- voter turnout was 40.4 percent statewide, according to the state board of elections.

But "I'll be surprised if we break 30 percent countywide," Cameron Quinn, in charge of elections, told Patch Tuesday morning. That figure is consistent with voter turnout in 2007.  The county, as of Nov. 1, had 640,689 "active" voter registrations. That figure would be just a little lower than four years ago, she said.

Quinn said she is seeing higher voter turnout in areas where the races are tight, and not as high turnout where races are uncontested.

At Madison High School, which houses both the Vienna No. 6 precinct and the newly-drawn Precinct 204, Madison, turnout was about 150 among both precincts around 8 a.m., who together have a bit more than 2500 voters. 

Six percent in the first two hours was "pretty good," poll workers there said.

At Vienna No.2, whose polling station is at the Vienna Community Center, they had seen about 200 of 3,200 voters by 9 a.m. -- about 6.5 percent. And at Cunningham Park, the voting spot for Vienna No. 1, 224 of 3,849 active voters had cast their ballots, falling in the same turnout range with about 5.81 percent by 9:30 a.m.

Also on voters minds': and county spending.

"I commute to Tysons every day. I see the planning for the roads themselves but people getting in and around, I'm not sure if that's happened yet.  So I'm eager to make my voice heard on that," Perkins said.

"Just the sheer scope of spending and issues here ... there's all kinds of programs and things that are real extras. You have to look at getting the fundamentals right and all the rest will come together," said resident Thomas Wilbur.

The polls will be open until 7 p.m. tonight. Patch will chat live about results as they come in . Check back for more from the polls throughout the day, and results as they're announced.

For a full list of races,

Mary Ann Barton reported for this story.