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Politics & Government

Last Minute Voters Head to the Polls

Less than an hour to go until this year's election comes to a close.

With less than an hour left in today’s elections voters are still lining up at the polls throughout the county in order to cast their final votes before the 7 p.m. deadline. School Board Candidate Tom Marshall wrapped up his campaign by greeting last minute voters at .

“There are ten presincts and I’ve been to all ten of them,” Marshall said, adding that he spend most of his time at Ida Lee and . When asked how he felt about the elections he said he wasn’t discourage, however he wasn’t excited either.

“I have two people running against me and I think they can split the votes simply because both of them are Republicans, both are Mormons, which is an interesting combination because they have friends in each camp and maybe they can’t make up their mind who to vote for," he said. "I can profit from that. I’m willing to do that.”

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Chief Election Officer Bob Merhaut said there was a “fantastic” turnout at Ida Lee. As of 5:15 p.m. more than 760 people had come out to cast their vote. It could be due to the nice weather, he said, or the fact that a number of the local candidates live in the Leesburg area.

“I think there’s maybe five of the people who are actually candidates who live in this prescint so maybe their connection to people here in this community brought a lot of people out today,” Merhaut said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had sort of a mid-term election but this is a pretty strong turnout. It’s been very constant all day, the booths have been full all day; very little lull time.”

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Further down the road, at the , located in the Catoctin District, voter turnout was much less. The Chief Election Officer, who didn't provide their name, said there had been about 380 voters.

“Last year was a lot heavier and in 2008 of course. But for an off year I think it’s been OK," said volunteer Dan Costello, who stood outside while passing out literature on the Republican party. "It hasn’t been stupendous, it hasn’t been that bad either. Personally, I think it’s an important election and I wish more people would think that way.”

 

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