I voted today--at 7:50 AM. I noticed I was the 6th person to vote...sad. I figure if candidates can put in the time, effort and energy it takes to run--plus the willingness to put themselves "out there" in the public eye-- we as the public should at least respect their efforts, show up at the polls and cast a vote.

My sister and I went to the polling place together. We were the only voters there and got the sense that they were almost surprised to see us.

If this is a typical level of apathy, no wonder we see so few qualified candidates for office.

With the exception of the four volunteer poll workers, I was the lone voter at my No. VA polling place at about 8:50 am this morning.

Absentee turnout was bout 60% of Webb-Miller in 2006. Turnout today pretty much tracked that throughout the County.

I was pleased to see the election officials at my local polling place were seizing the opportunity of super low turnout to try to make one-on-one recruitment pitches to each vote to consider working as an election official for the fall election--which I think we all expect to be the "perfect storm" in terms of voter interest and turnout. After all, Virginia is now a battleground state. Think past presidential turnouts and multiply by (?).

When I told them I would be busy that day passing out literature for Barack Obama (or whatever the campaign may ask me to do) they did not seem surprised -- but they did encourage me to pass along the call for additional election workers to anyone I knew who wasn't going to volunteering for either party. So I am doing so here!

The workers today told me they did it because it was a wonderful way to give back to the community with just a day's focused volunteering. They also reminded me there is a small stipend (payment). They said the workers get a real esprit de corps and enjoy working together. And there was some passing reference to free pizza! So do please seriously consider volunteering as an election official this fall. We are all, Democrats and Republicans alike, so grateful to those who do.

At 10:30 this morning, I was the only voter there. I wonder how much the heat was responsible for the lack of turnout.

No, I didn't vote today.

I'm a Republican living in the 11th Congressional District. There was no reason for me to vote today.

At 4:30 PM today, my father and I were the only voters at our polling place, though that is not unusual at that location at that time of day. At that point there had been around 130 voters before us.

I went in at around 7:15am and I was the only voter there. I was a only lightly surprised. My precinct has second-lowest average turnout in Arlington, I believe.

I voted at about 9:30. At a firehouse with two people checking voters in and two machines, there was one other person being checked in when I arrived. By the time I was checked in, voted and was leaving, nobody else had arrived.

At 5:30pm when I went to vote, I was the 78th voter that day. My husband and a woman who came in at the same time were voters 79 and 80, respectively. The poll workers said that we were the largest crowd they had seen that day.

I'm ashamed to say I forgot! I'll blame it on heatstroke. I'm usually one of the few...now I'm one of the pathethic.

So far, looks like about 1 percent turnout in the 11th district democratic race (per SBE site). Has to set some sort of record for money spent per vote.

As of early afternoon at the Camelot precinct, there had been 70 voters ALL Day. I got more questions about the "I voted" sticker that I was wearing. Most people that I talked to at the neighborhood pool this evening, didn't even know there was an election being held today.

No, I assumed that the lack of roads due to NOVA NIMBYs and/or VDOT would make it impossible for me to make it to my polling station.

Fairfax Voter, was our Dear Leader on the ballot today????? I didn't realize he would be on the ballot and we would need to be out campaigning today. Now I will have to go to confession!

I didn't even realize I was *supposed* to vote today! Where was the news coverage?? I had noticed a few signs out on the highway but not enough to really register that there was an election happening in the IMMEDIATE future.

I passed by a poll this morning and hadn't made my mind up to vote, as I was so put off by the negative campaigning between Connolly and Byrne. Finally decided to vote later in the day, but more of a protest vote unfortunately given the race.

Elections aren't news. There's no way to spin a primary into a CRISIS.

I'm surprised to read over and over that this was an "under the radar" election. My house has never gotten so many phone calls before! We had 3 voicemails in one day. Our house was visited repeatedly. When I heard that turnout was 2%, I realized that we must be so heavily targeted because voting records indicate that we will always be among the sliver of very reliable primary voters. I would have been happy with future Congresswoman (again) Byrne, and I'll be happy with Congressman Connolly . . . let's just win the seat back.

Ditto what Rebecca posted...had no idea there was an election today. When I dropped my kids off at SACC, they even asked me who was voting - still didn't register as I replied, "I have no idea - maybe it's a church group." There are church services sometimes held in the school. Oh, well - would have liked to hear it hyped as much as all the other hoopla going on since last year regarding the prez race...

I voted about 9:30, and was about the 45th person to vote. Maybe Doug Mataconis should have organized a write-in campaign; imagine a Republican winning the Democratic nomination because voter turnout was low.

Didn't vote; didn't know about it.

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