Overheard at the Venable School voting precinct, circa 12:30pm:
Voter 1: "Did you actually vote for Karl Marx?"
Voter 2: "Yeah!"
Voter 1: "Is that with a ‘C’ or a ‘K’?"
And what does spelling matter if the message is the same? Or, for that matter, size? Seconds after local Republican and former City Council candidate John Pfaltz handed me a 4" by 7" red sample ballot (emblazoned with the phrase "Commonwealth of Virginia Sample Ballot" and with boxes for each Republican candidate checked off), a local Democrat rushed over to hand me her version, half-sized and in bright blue. (The Democratic version bears the phrase "Democratic Sample Ballot," with all boxes filled for the Democratic candidates.)
Signs of the times: Prime campaign poster real estate at the Venable School precinct.
With a very slim line of voters waiting to enter the polls, campaigners were regrouping. I watched as Pfaltz secured a Virgil Goode sign directly in front of a Tom Perriello sign, complete covering it up—a political eclipse. When a nearby woman asked him to move the sign, Pfaltz spoke loudly about simply using a spot "right here, where everybody is…" while two men looked on.
"John, nobody’s stopping you," one of the men responded. "Stick it in the ground."
