How Are People Feeling About Tomorrow's Election?
Local party chairs describe the mood. Traffic detours in Fredericksburg will challenge voters.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
With only 12 hours left before polls open and campaigning drawing to a close, there’s little left to do to prepare for Election Day, but many feelings to feel.
“I think people fall into one of three categories (or all three simultaneously),” said Howard Rudat, Chair of the Stafford Democratic Committee, on Monday morning. “People are excited about the thought of electing our first woman President and turning a corner that returns us to a level of civility that has been lost.”
But also, he said, people are feeling “nervous because the polls show the race a dead heat, or within the margin of error, in so many battleground states.” And they are also “very concerned about the civil unrest that could occur regardless of who comes out on top.”
To Scott Vezina, who chairs the Fredericksburg Republican Committee, the mood among voters is a little less complicated.
“The mood for us is good,” he said shortly after noon on Monday. “I think people are excited. There’s a lot of excitement about our ticket right now. We’re really excited about the 7th Congressional District and Derrick Anderson. We’ve knocked on 700 doors already today, so we’re still working hard to get every vote out.”
Something that does concern Vezina is the fact that traffic detours will affect two of the five precincts in Fredericksburg City tomorrow.
Access to Hugh Mercer Elementary, which is the voting location for Precinct 101, from Central Park will be affected by the closure of Cowan Boulevard between Hospital Drive and Carl D Silver Parkway for the installation of a new sewer main. Cowan Boulevard will be open from Emancipation Highway to Hospital Drive.
Fredericksburg Regional Transit will provide bus service tomorrow from 7 to 10 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. from Evergreen Apartments and Madonna House to Hugh Elementary School for those impacted by the road closures.
Learning Lane, the traditional route to Walker-Grant Middle School—which is the voting location for Precinct 301, has been closed since August for emergency stormwater pipe repairs. There is a posted detour route that voters should plan to use.
Maps of the detour routes for both Hugh Mercer and Walker-Grant are posted at the Fredericksburg Registrar’s website.
Vezina said there’s been a lot of work to communicate news about these detours, especially to elderly residents. He also said the Registrar’s Office has been in daily communication with both party committees and that he has no concerns about election integrity in the City.
“I think Fredericksburg is in a good spot,” he said.
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