600,238 voters – or 78.8% – of Fairfax County’s 761,573 active registered voters participated in this year’s general election, more than two-thirds of them absentee in Virginia’s first election with no-excuse absentee voting.

Based on unofficial results from the Fairfax County Office of Elections, that likely sets a record for the most votes cast in an election in Fairfax County history, but the turnout rate falls short of the 2012 and 2016 general elections, which both had rates of 80.5% and 82.5%, respectively.

“This election year was unlike any other we have ever seen,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said. “Our turnout throughout the process was truly encouraging and spoke to our residents’ faith in the democratic process.”

Though precinct-level results reveal some differences, Fairfax County voters as a whole clearly favored Democrats in this year’s election, supporting Joe Biden over incumbent President Donald Trump and reelecting Sen. Mark Warner, Rep. Don Beyer (8^th District), Rep. Jennifer Wexton (10^th District), and Rep. Gerry Connolly (11^th District) to Congress.

Of the county’s nine districts, Hunter Mill had the highest voter turnout for the 2020 general election.

More than 81% of Hunter Mill District’s 93,193 active registered voters cast a ballot in the Nov. 3 election, either in person on Election Day or absentee. The district is also the only one in the county with over 90,000 active registered voters as of Oct. 30.

Springfield District had the second highest turnout at 80.8%, followed by Dranesville in terms of the percentage of voters who participated in the election (80.1%) or by Sully in terms of the total number of votes cast (71,082 to the 70,186 ballots recorded by Dranesville).

Springfield saw 23,333 in-person Election Day voters, the most in the county, while Hunter Mill voters cast the most absentee ballots with 55,134, though absentee voting surpassed in-person Election Day voting in all districts.

The gap between absentee voting and in-person Election Day voting was particularly wide in Providence District, where 50,814 of the district’s 87,100 active registered voters cast in in-person or by-mail absentee ballot and only 17,117 people voted on Election Day.

While the election results will not be official until they are certified on Nov. 16, all ballots are now in after the deadline for absentee ballots to be returned came at noon on Nov. 6.

The City of Falls Church, which held a special election to fill a vacant city council seat, saw a record turnout with 8,879 votes, though the 83.3% turnout rate fell short of the record 87.4% of active voters who cast ballots in the 2012 general election.

After Election Day, the city counted an additional 68 absentee ballots from drop boxes, by mail, and as federal write-ins, and officials accepted 25 provisional ballots, according to Falls Church City director of elections and general registrar David Bjerke.

Debora Schantz-Hiscott won the city council special election with 54% of the vote.

“We have a lot of work ahead. But I am excited for this opportunity,” Schantz-Hiscott said in a guest post for the Falls Church News-Press. “As we face tremendous uncertainty in our nation, it will take a village to see us through this crisis. Here in Falls Church City, I am certain we will rise to this occasion together.”

Staff Photo by Jay Westcott

In anticipation of the upcoming holiday season, the Fairfax County Health Department released a set of guidelines with information on how to celebrate Thanksgiving safely. 

The county emphasized that it’s still vital to work to slow the spread of COVID-19 and that, despite the cold months and inevitable pandemic fatigue, community members should not let their guards down now. 

According to the guidelines, high-risk activities include:

• Going shopping in crowded stores just before, on, or after Thanksgiving
• Participating in or watching a crowded race
• Attending crowded parades
• Attending large indoor gatherings with people from outside your household 

Moderate-risk activities include:

• Having a small outdoor dinner with family and friends in your community
• Visiting pumpkin patches or orchards where people use hand sanitizer before touching produce, wearing masks is encouraged or enforced, and people can maintain social distancing
• Attending small outdoor sports events with safety precautions in place

Lower risk activities include:

• Having a small dinner with people who live in your household
• Having virtual dinner and sharing recipes with friends and family
• Preparing recipes for family and neighbors and delivering them in a way that doesn’t involve contact with others
• Shopping online the day after Thanksgiving, as opposed to in-person
• Watching sports events, parades, and movies from home

The county advised against participating in any in-person activities if you or anyone in your household has, or are showing, symptoms of COVID-19 and reiterated that traveling increases the chance of getting and spreading COVID-19.

The health department suggests following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations on holiday gatherings to further lower risk. 

Photo via Fairfax County Emergency Information

Fairfax County Police Chief Col. Edwin C. Roessler Jr. will step down from his position early next year, the Fairfax County Police Department announced this morning (Thursday).

The FCPD says Roessler will retire after eight years as Fairfax County’s police chief effective February 2021 in order to transition the agency, which is the largest police department in Virginia, to a new generation of leadership.

The FCPD’s announcement confirms news that was first reported by Washington Post journalist Justin Jouvenal.

“The FCPD is blessed with women and men, past and present, who understand their noble calling in life and are deidcated to serving and protecting others,” Roessler said. “…Our county leaders, community and its great police department are positioned to continue to serve as a model for the next generation of policing in America.”

Roessler’s tenure with the Fairfax County Police Department spans more than three decades. First hired as a police recruit in 1989, he rose to the position of deputy chief before serving as interim Chief of Police in early 2013 to replace then-Chief David Rohrer, who had been promoted to deputy county executive for public safety in October 2012.

Roessler was officially appointed as Fairfax County’s police chief by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in July 2013.

Roessler became police chief as the FCPD was facing increased scrutiny by county officials and community members after a Fairfax County police officer shot and killed Springfield resident John Geer in August 2013.

After the Board of Supervisors established an independent Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission to examine the FCPD’s policies and relationship to the community it serves, Roessler oversaw the implementation of many of the commission’s recommendations, including the creation of a body-worn camera program, the establishment of a civilian review panel and independent police auditor, and modifications to the department’s use-of-force policy.

The FCPD also started a Chief’s Diversity Council and worked with county leaders and community advocates through the Fairfax County Communities of Trust Committee, which was formed in 2015 by then-Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova and led by then-Fairfax County NAACP President Shirley Ginwright.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay thanked Roessler for “his years of service to Fairfax County and his dedication to protecting our county,” emphasizing Roessler’s efforts to work with the board to implement reforms “that have solidified the police department as a leader in transparency and community trust.”

“I know I join many in wishing the Chief continued good health and success in his next chapter,” McKay said. “I look forward to beginning the search for his successor and continuing to build on our successes in Fairfax County.”

Photo via Fairfax County

More than 30 companies in the D.C. metro area are looking to hire women for open positions in STEM-based fields at a Women in Technology Virtual Career Fair tomorrow (Thursday). Some of the companies include Amazon, Capital One, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. 

The career fair is sponsored by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority and Capital One as part of an ongoing series of virtual career fairs that the FCEDA has supported in response to the COVID-19 crisis, according to a press release from the FCEDA.

The first three virtual fairs in the series attracted more than 2,100 attendees, the release says.

“More girls and women need to be exposed to the high-paying jobs in the technology sectors that are a major part of the economy of Fairfax County,” Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross said.

Gross, who serves as vice chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, added that “efforts such as this career fair open up a wider talent pipeline for the companies that have so many job openings even during the pandemic.” 

According to the release, only 26% of the jobs held by women in the workforce are computing-related jobs. The career fair on Nov. 5 will help connect technology professionals with top organizations in the D.C. metro area, seeking to help increase access to opportunity “in a field where women have been historically underrepresented.” 

Participants will be able to browse companies through a virtual lobby, enter their booths, view open positions, engage in video conferencing, and talk with human resources representatives at the virtual fair.

“In Northern Virginia, we have more than 15,000 tech firms constantly hiring. In fact, tech job postings are growing more in Virginia than in California and New York,” FCEDA President and CEO Victor Hoskins said. “We are a region that not just embraces, but pioneers diversity: women are twice as likely to work in tech in Northern Virginia than in Silicon Valley.” 

Participation in the career fair is free of charge. Employers interested in promoting their job openings can contact Mike Batt, the FCEDA Director of Talent Initiative Programs at [email protected] or visit the Employer Resources page. 

Photo via the FCEDA/Instagram

Updated at 11:00 p.m. — Falls Church Education Foundation executive director Debora Schantz-Hiscott appears likely to win the Falls Church City Council’s open seat based on preliminary results from the City of Falls Church Office of Voter Registration and Elections.

Schantz-Hiscott carried 47.5 percent of the city’s total vote after winning two out of three wards and attracting 48 percent of the 7,556 absentee ballots that had been counted on Tuesday.

Falls Church City Housing Commissioner Joshua Shokoor came in second with 27.3 percent, edging out Schantz-Hiscott to win the Third Ward, while community activist Simone Pass Tucker trailed with 11.6 percent of the vote.

The special election for the Falls Church City Council seat, which was left vacant by the late Councilmember Daniel Sze’s death from cancer in July, was part of a packed general election ballot that saw an unprecedented amount of early voting, enabled by Virginia General Assembly legislation that permitted no-excuse absentee voting.

The City of Falls Church set a record for the number of ballots cast with 8,786 votes easily surpassing the previous high of 7,860 ballots from 2016.

However, barring a massive influx of post-Election Day absentee ballots, the 82.5 percent of active, registered voters who turned out this year falls short of 2016, which had an 85.4 percent turnout. The 87.4 percent of active voters who cast ballots in the 2012 general election remains Falls Church City’s high mark for voter turnout in terms of percentages, according to Falls Church City elections director and registrar David Bjerke.

70.4 percent of Falls Church City voters turned in their ballots before Election Day. By the day’s end, the city’s central absentee precinct, which collects all absentee votes, was responsible for 7,556 ballots. The city’s three wards reported 1,230 ballots combined.

Fairfax County saw a similarly high rate of early voting with 51 percent of its 77.5 percent voter turnout coming before Election Day. As of 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the county office of elections had received 404,254 by-mail and in-person absentee ballots.

Turnout Update as of 4 p.m.
✔️ Today: 19.7%
✔️ Early Voting: 51%
✔️ Estimated Total: 70.7% of 787,000 registered voters in Fairfax County

Vote or return mailed ballots by 7 p.m. https://t.co/D58GOcVxM4#vote #vote2020 #electionday #election2020 #2020election pic.twitter.com/IRanLUVTj2

— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) November 3, 2020

Because Virginia will accept absentee ballots until noon on Nov. 6 as long as they are postmarked on or before Nov. 3, state and local election officials emphasized that the reported results for this year’s election are unofficial until they are certified on Nov. 16.

Based on Election Day results from its 243 precincts, which have now all reported, Fairfax County voters generally favored Democrats with presidential candidate Joe Biden, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Reps. Don Beyer (8^th District) and Gerry Connolly (11^th District) each leading their respective races among county voters.

Only voters in the 10^th District, which encompasses parts of Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, were leaning Republican with Aliscia Andrews holding a lead over incumbent Rep. Jennifer Wexton, though as of 10:40 p.m., the vote totals in Fairfax County’s unofficial returns do not yet include absentee ballots.

Fairfax County public information officer Brian Worthy told Tysons Reporter on Tuesday that the county was anticipating around 40,000 absentee ballots to remain uncounted by 11:00 p.m., when the Virginia Department of Elections is instructing local officials to report absentee results. That number includes ballots put in drop boxes on Election Day as well as any ballots that are still being returned by mail.

“Ballots must [be] postmarked today but will be counted if they’re received by the Office of Elections by noon on this Friday,” Worthy said.

The Associated Press projected by 8:30 p.m. that Biden would win Virginia and that Warner and Beyer would be reelected.

Staff photo by Jay Westcott

Updated at 2:55 p.m. — Voter turnout in the City of Falls Church has now topped 80% with residents turning in 8,573 ballots total as of 2 p.m., according to city elections officials.

The city is seeing its highest voter turnout ever with this year’s election easily surpassing the 7,860 votes cast in 2016, which previously saw the most number of votes, according to David Bjerke, the director of elections and general registrar for the City of Falls Church.

The 87.4% of active registered voters who cast ballots in 2012 remains the city’s high watermark for the percent of voters participating in a general election, but with 80.1% of voters having already cast their ballots by 2 p.m., 2020 could still potentially set a new record in terms of percentage as well as numbers.

2pm
CAP: 7552 (added mail and drop box)
Ward 1: 388
Ward 2: 318
Ward 3: 279

8573 ballots for 80.1%

4/5 of the City has voted. Less than 5 hours to break the record.

— Dave Bjerke (@davebjerke) November 3, 2020

The vast majority of ballots that both Falls Church City and Fairfax County have received so far were cast before Election Day after early voters turned out in droves, thanks to state legislation permitting no-excuse absentee voting took effect this year.

The City of Falls Church has received 7,552 absentee ballots, including ones delivered by mail and dropboxes, while in Fairfax County, more than 404,000 votes were cast early, according to county election officials.

As of 2 p.m., Fairfax County was seeing an estimated 16.1% voter turnout for Election Day. With absentee ballots constituting about 51% of the county’s voting population, that means 67.1% of the county’s 787,000 registered voters have cast ballots in this year’s general election.

Despite concerns about voter intimidation in the lead-up to Election Day, Fairfax County public information officer Brian Worthy said this morning that the county has not experienced any issues with voting at its 244 precincts, and turnout has been “light as expected” due to the high levels of early voters.

“There are no lines that I’ve heard of, although I witnessed a very small one around 6 a.m. at the Fairfax County Government Center,” Worthy said. “No lines now and very few voters.”

2 p.m. Turnout Update
✔️ Today: 16.1%
✔️ Early Voting: 51% (404,000 votes)
✔️ Estimated Total: 67.1% of 787,000 registered voters in Fairfax County

Vote or return mailed ballots by 7 p.m.#vote #vote2020 #electionday #election2020 #2020election pic.twitter.com/GbRq3OMrCK

— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) November 3, 2020

Photo via Fairfax County government/Twitter

Like many other parts of Virginia and the U.S., Fairfax County is seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases as the weather gets cooler.

The county has a rolling seven-day average of 133.9 cases as of Nov. 2, the highest since mid-June when an average of 137 cases was recorded on June 12.

After adding 937 cases over the past seven days starting on Oct. 27, including 167 new cases just on Nov. 2, Fairfax County now has a total of 24,642 COVID-19 cases and 2,317 hospitalizations.

The latest data from the Virginia Department of Health shows that the Fairfax Health District, which includes the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church as well as Fairfax County, now has a total of 620 COVID-19 deaths, with 605 deaths in Fairfax County, eight in Fairfax City, and seven in Falls Church.

Fairfax County’s case rate of 2,120 cases per 100,000 people is roughly in line with those of surrounding localities, surpassing Arlington (2,012) but remaining under the City of Alexandria (2,718) despite its significantly larger population.

Virginia’s northern region as a whole saw a steady upward trend in cases throughout October, but it has become more pronounced over the past week, when the region’s seven-day moving average rose from 234.3 cases on Oct. 25 to 322.3 cases today.

While that still falls far short of the 685.3 seven-day average recorded when the pandemic was peaking in Northern Virginia at the end of May, the upward trajectory reflects an overall surge in reported COVID-19 cases throughout Virginia.

The 1,306 seven-day moving average that Virginia reported today is the highest that the state has ever seen since the novel coronavirus first emerged in the Commonwealth in March.

The regional and statewide climb in COVID-19 cases will continue to draw scrutiny as Fairfax County Public Schools plans to bring more students back into physical classrooms throughout November.

FCPS started returning small cohorts of students to in-person instruction at the beginning of October, and students in early Head Start through second grade, along with students in special education and students with intensive support needs, are all tentatively scheduled to return to school by Nov. 30.

117 employees and 26 students have reported contracting COVID-19 to principals, program managers, or administrators since early September, according to a weekly COVID-19 case dashboard compiled by FCPS.

Because the case count is based on self-reporting, FCPS notes that the data “should be interpreted with caution…and may not be aligned to future epidemiological investigations.”

Staff Photo by Jay Westcott; image via Virginia Department of Health

As Election Day approaches, public facilities in Fairfax County are announcing what will be closed and what will remain open on the state holiday.

Since the county opted to give most employees the day off, most Fairfax County government facilities will be closed, including the government center. However, the Office of Elections will be open, and polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m.

“The right to vote is a very important, very important part of our American process,” Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill said on the “Connect with County Leaders” podcast. “The Board of Supervisors on the FYI 22 calendar added Election Day as a day off, so it made most sense on a presidential election cycle to also add it.”

“Once they added it on…the calendar year ’22, I spoke to the supervisors and asked them if they would like it also to be on November 3, 2020,” Hill added.

The City of Falls Church will be operating as normal, according to Susan Finarelli, the director of communications for the city.

The Town of Vienna will also stay open, Vienna marketing and communications manager Lynn Coan says.

Students within Fairfax County Public Schools will have both Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 off of school, with today marking the end of the first quarter. Additionally, FCPS will be distributing double breakfast and lunch meals on Nov. 2 to cover both days off as a food resource for students, according to FCPS.

Virginia designated Election Day as a state holiday for the first time this year when the General Assembly passed legislation to substitute it for Lee-Jackson Day, which the Commonwealth had observed on the Friday preceding Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January since 1904.

“Voting is a fundamental right, and these new laws strengthen our democracy by making it easier to cast a ballot, not harder,” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said upon signing the bill into law. “No matter who you are or where you live in Virginia, your voice deserves to be heard.”

Photo by Element5 Digital/Unsplash

Fairfax County has requested approval to change the Tysons Corner Metro Station’s name, dropping the word “corner” so it becomes “Tysons Station.” 

According to a press release from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the name would be changed on all system maps, digital signs, the WMATA website, SmarTrip app, in-system directional signage, and more. 

Prince George’s County is also looking to change Prince George’s Plaza Station to “Hyattsville Crossing.” 

Under Metro’s policy, requests to rename a station are considered by the Metro Board of Directors, who will approve or deny the request. 

The board of directors has released an online survey to gauge what riders think of changing the station  names as part of the process, welcoming feedback. 

According to the release, the jurisdiction making the name change request must commit to funding the full cost of the change, including reprinting maps, making new signs, and reprogramming systems that provide customers information. 

Additionally, according to the release, the policy has three major guidelines for any new station name:

• Names should identify the station locations by geographic features such as landmarks or centers of activity.
• Names should be distinctive and evoke imagery in the mind of the patron.
• Names should be no longer than 19 characters, except for transfer station names, which should be non longer than 13 characters. 

Survey responses will be accepted through Nov. 2 at 5 p.m.

Photo via Tysons Reporter

The McLean Governmental Center and Providence Community Center are among the most popular sites for early voting in Fairfax County after the county expanded early voting to 13 satellite locations on Oct. 14.

While voters have shown up in droves throughout the county, turnout has been especially high at those two Tysons-area sites, Mount Vernon Government Center in Alexandria, and Reston’s North County Governmental Center, according to county officials.

The Fairfax County Government Center, which has been open for early voting since Sept. 18, also remains popular, but the addition of the satellite locations has eased some of the pressure there after weeks of unusually long lines and wait times.

The wait time for voting in-person now generally ranges from 20 to 40 minutes, though it varies depending on the time of day and day of the week, Fairfax County public information officer Brian Worthy says, noting that mornings tend to be busier.

Sen. Mark Warner (D), who visited the McLean Governmental Center and other early voting sites in Northern Virginia on Saturday (Oct. 17), called the strong turnout “a great sign.”

“This is the first year we’ve had early voting, so I think maybe in future years, [we could think about] opening up additional sites earlier,” Warner said. “But I also think it’s a great sign of how healthy our democracy is if this many people are coming out to vote.”

Saturday represented the biggest turnout yet for Fairfax County. The nearly 11,000 early votes cast on Oct. 17 exceeded the biggest day for early voting in 2016, which came on the final day for early voting in that election, according to the county elections office.

This past Saturday was biggest day for #earlyvoting yet. Almost 11,000 votes cast—more than the single largest day for early voting during the 2016 #presidential election.#ivotedearly #voteearly #vote2020 #govote #vote #election2020 #2020election pic.twitter.com/xyv6gr43ki

— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) October 19, 2020

Election workers at the McLean Governmental Center on Saturday told Tysons Reporter that the number of people arriving to cast ballots grew throughout the week, starting around 500 people and peaking at 800 people that Friday (Oct. 16).

Turnout continued to be brisk on Saturday, but the lines were shorter and moved more quickly, because some people instead went to Great Falls Library, which opened on Oct. 17 and is only available for early voting on Saturdays. Read More