Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Good morning! Happy Election Day! On this day in 1912, Virginia-born presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson gathered 6.2 million votes nationwide. That was 41 percent of the popular vote, enough to win him the Electoral College in a three-way race with incumbent William Howard Taft and former President Teddy Roosevelt.

Welcome to The Virginia Flyover. Today, we'll provide an election day primer, explain how Richmond chooses a mayor, and tell you how firefighters are improving their skills. If you haven't yet signed up to fly with us, please click here.

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Virginia is Ready to Vote

Election Day is here, and as many as 3.5 million Virginians may turn out to cast a ballot today.

Early voting ended over the weekend with more than 2.29 million ballots cast, down slightly from the 2.81 million early votes in 2020.

The federal government will send election monitors to six locations in the Commonwealth: Henrico, Hanover, Prince William, and Loudoun Counties, and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, to ensure federal procedures are followed.

All Virginia voters fill out paper ballots, and those votes are tallied by machines that are not connected to the internet. Votes that were cast early will be added to the tab when polls close at 7 this evening.

Election officials may double-check the machines later in the month by running a hand count to ensure that the number of votes cast matches the number counted by the machines on election night.

If you are registered but not sure where your polling place is, click here. Please take some form of identification when you go to vote, or you may be forced to use a provisional ballot and prove your eligibility at a later time.

Richmond's Unusual Electoral Process

Five candidates are running for mayor in the city of Richmond. However, just as in the presidential election, their goal isn't necessarily piling up the most popular votes.

To be elected mayor, a candidate must win a plurality of votes in five of the city's nine districts, so a candidate could lag in the popular vote but still be elected tonight.

If none of the candidates wins five districts, the popular vote comes back into play. The two candidates with the most votes overall would face each other in a runoff in December.

There hasn't been a runoff since Richmond adopted this format in 2003.

The Commonwealth is the Place to Be

Whether or not our preferred candidates win tonight, we hope Virginians will be polite about the outcomes.

After all, a blog site recently tallied up the 25 Most Neighborly Cities in America, and our Commonwealth nabbed two of the top 10 spots.

Virginia Beach came in at No. 3 nationally, while Richmond was No. 9. The categories included charitable donations, volunteerism, crime rates, population growth, and, notably on this day, voter turnout.

Our state also boasts three of the top 10 cities to move to, according to USA Today. Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Richmond all made that list based on 16 categories, most of them financial.

Visitors also know they are welcome here and are coming in droves. Tourism generated a record $33.3 billion last year, up 10% year-over-year.

Virginia is for lovers, even (especially) on Election Day.

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➤ Henrico: The Civil War site Fort Harrison is telling the story of 194 black soldiers who cast votes there in 1864. All are thought to have voted to reelect President Lincoln. (More)

➤ Richmond: Lawmakers are considering ways to change the state's school funding formula after a study revealed that local governments spend more to meet the state's Standard of Learning standards than the Commonwealth does. (Details)

➤ Virginia Beach: The fire department and Virginia Task Force 2 hosted training for 140 firefighters from across the country, teaching them how to handle difficult situations such as the collapse of a burning building. (Details)

➤ Alexandria: Police arrested a fugitive and seized a commercial-grade smoke bomb during a weekend traffic stop. (More)

➤ Statewide: The average price of gasoline in the Commonwealth last week was $2.99 per gallon, according to a survey by GasBuddy. That is 22 cents less than last November. (More)

➤ Roanoke: Wasena Park will get an upgrade: a $1.6 million regional skatepark is scheduled to open in 2026. (More)

➤ NFL insider Adam Schefter reports that players across the league are requesting a trade to the Washington Commanders amid the team's recent resurgence. (More)

➤ Richmond remains undefeated in the CAA as it prepares to visit Campbell this weekend. The Spiders topped Towson on Homecoming Day. (Details)

➤ ACC basketball season is underway, and the league has more questions than answers. (Details)

➤ Yesterday's Results: NFL | NBA | NHL | NCAAM | NCAAW

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➤ Altria Group announced a $600 million cost-saving program that will include an unknown number of layoffs over the next five years. (Details)

➤ HII, a McLean-based defense contractor, was awarded a $3 billion Defense Department contract to improve military logistics. (More)

➤ LL Flooring CEO Charles Tyson resigned suddenly. The change comes less than two months after the company's founder announced he was buying hundreds of LL Flooring stores out of bankruptcy and rebranding them as Lumber Liquidators. (Details)

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➤ The Central Virginia Planning District Commission launched the ConnectingVA app to help commuters plan trips, whether by car, rideshare, or bicycle. (More)

➤ The Throwing Shade VA program encourages people to plant native trees and shrubs. The program is enrolling nurseries this month and will begin offering discounts to customers in 2025. (Details)

➤ Portsmouth ConnectFest brought city leaders and community organizers together to make residents aware of the resources that are available to them. (More)

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