Low Turnout for Democratic Primary in Falls Church

There are more than 9,000 registered voters in the City of Falls Church but only about 250 hit the polls in the Democratic Primary Tuesday.

David Bjerke, general registrar for the city, said it’s generally a low turnout for these kinds of elections. He said the issue with primaries is they’re not campaigning against another party. Democratic lieutenant governor candidates Aneesh Chopra, Ralph Northam and attorney general hopefuls Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring fill out the ticket. 

“At this rate we’ll be lucky to hit 500,” he said.

The last time Virginia held a June statewide primary was in 2009, according to the State Board of Elections. That year, R. Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran were all running on the Democrat's ticket for governor. According to the state’s board of elections, Jody Wagner and A. Michael Signer were running for lieutenant governor, and there were several down-ballot primaries for both Democrats and Republicans.  

Turnout that year was lower than 6.5 percent statewide. The highest voter turnout rate was in the Republican primary for a House of Delegates position (District 55) northwest of Richmond with 13.5 percent voter turnout.