Paul Best, the independent candidate for city sheriff, has a secret weapon stationed at the Venable School voting station: his niece, 21-year-old Shawna. When I arrived at Venable, Shawna told me a bit about her uncle—specifically, his involvement with the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force, bolded on his own website. (Bonus reading: I HeArTE JADE blogger Elisha Strom commented on Best’s campaign here and here.)
I asked Shawna if Best planned to stop by Venable; she replied that he was stationed at Walker Upper Elementary School, then called him and passed me the phone. Best reported that he’d arrived at Walker around 8am, after he dropped a few 8′ campaign signposts off at voting stations. Best’s fiancée is visiting multiple voting spots while Best stays at Walker, according to Shawna.
Next, I said hello to Kristin Szakos, one of the two Democratic City Council candidates. Szakos said she planned to visit all eight precincts today; she also shared her surprise when, while visiting the Board of Elections website yesterday, she noted not eight but nine precincts listed. (One represents absentee ballots.)
While Szakos and I spoke, we were approached by John Pfaltz, a computer science professor at UVA and chairman of the Venable precinct for the local Republican Party. (Incidentally, I saw Pfaltz in the same spot last year while covering the 2008 Presidential election.) Pfaltz called his precinct "a fun precinct to be in," and he and Szakos seemed to speak pleasantly with one another. Both agreed that voter turnout seemed slow, and Pfaltz referred to Szakos as an "optimist." She smiled.
On my way out, I spotted a pair of city police officers on motorcycles and wondered if they were there to support Best or James Brown in the election. Turns out, neither: A driver had run into the side of a parked car directly opposite the voting station. Careful, voters!
