Super Tuesday 2024 blog: Live updates from Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro

On Super Tuesday, News Leader reporters are out and about talking to voters and election officials throughout the day. Check this page often today for updates. Thanks to voters and poll workers who have been taking the time to speak to us.

6:45 p.m. — Stuarts Draft — Stuarts Draft Elementary School

STUARTS DRAFT — Kitty Hall had thought about voting early Tuesday morning, but she had run some errands and it kind of slipped her mind. Then, a little before 6 p.m., she remembered she had to get to the polling place before it closed at 7 p.m.

"Voting is a privilege,” Hall said. “I’m here doing my civic duty and I’m privileged to do it.”

Hall voted at Stuarts Draft Elementary School in the Mount Vernon precinct, part of the South River District. Shortly after 6 p.m. there had been 317 voters in the precinct.

That voting was taking place in the school’s gym. Not too far away, in Stuarts Draft Elementary School’s cafeteria, there was also voting happening in a different precinct and a different district.

The school is also home to the Stuarts Draft Elementary precinct in the Beverley Manor District. A little after 6 p.m. that precinct had seen 118 voters.

Karen Fravel is an election official working the Stuarts Draft precinct poll Tuesday. She said voters have come in waves, with some busy periods throughout the day and some slower periods. At about 6:10 there was just one voter in the precinct, outnumbered by the five election officials on site.

“It’s been a very good day,” Fravel said. “With early voting it makes it different (than several years ago). As far as who has been voting already at the Government Center, we don’t know those numbers here. But a lot of people still like to go to the polling places the day of.”

Hall said some of the issues she was concerned about included women’s health issues and the border.

“And the economy,” she said. “I’m on social security, so when I go to the grocery store it’s like, oh my god, can I eat? It’s tough when you see meat prices and poultry and fish. It’s so high.”

— Patrick Hite

5:05 p.m. — Staunton — Seventh Day Adventist Church

STAUNTON - Nearly every car that pulls into the upper lot of Seventh Day Adventist Church, Staunton’s fourth ward, squeaks with the sound of rubber on asphalt. The age of the car does not seem to matter, squeaks coming in as if on a timer as cars pull into the lot, into parking spaces, out of parking spaces, and onto the road.

One would have ample time to study this phenomenon spending hours in a parking lot.

Outside the precinct, Staunton Democratic Party volunteer Ellen Boden is gathering the signatures needed to put Rob Grandon and Ken Mitchell on the upcoming House of Representatives ballot, and Tim Kaine in the Senate race.

She spoke to The News Leader amid the soundtrack of squeaks. She’s been on site since noon.

“I had some very interesting comments from people,” Boden told The News Leader. “‘I’m going to vote for the other guy just to undermine him.’ Then somebody else said, ‘You can’t do that, that’s illegal.’ Then she said, ‘Well I called the registrar and they said in the election you can vote any way you want!’”

In Virginia’s primaries, any voter can request one ballot, but there is no restriction on which of the two ballots the voter can take.

Boden is also the owner of Staunton Antiques Center downtown. She moved to Staunton over 20 years ago. In 1999, Boden and her husband would “sneak” away from New York to stay in a cabin in Broadway.

“When we started thinking about retirement, Staunton was on the list. We said let’s go all over central Virginia, go to every town that at least has a traffic light, and find other towns as wonderful as Staunton. That’s impossible. It never happened.”

This is not Boden’s first election — she volunteered during the November election. For the primary, she participated in early voting.

Inside Seventh Day Adventist Church, Election Chief Margie Scott looked at the ballot counter at 3:00 p.m. There were 265 ballots submitted.

“It think it’s been very smooth,” Scott told The News Leader. “I think the voters have been super.”

A squeak from outside almost sounded like confirmation.

“Usually there are some people who want to be the first ones to vote,” Scott explained. “We’ll see a couple of people, not a lot, rush” at the end of the day, “just coming in to get their vote in. We’re not expecting a 6 o’clock rush.”

When asked if she had a message for voters, Scott agreed with many of her fellow election volunteers.

“Come vote!” Scott told the voters. “We still have until 7 [p.m.]. We’ve got about four more hours.”

However today turns out, voters will come back again in November to decide the presidency. Moving back outside, The News Leader catches Boden in a thoughtful mood, seemingly oblivious to the squeaks of those coming and the squeaks of those going.

“I wish I had that three seconds with a crystal ball to know if I can be relieved or if I have to continue to worry,” Boden said.

4:45 p.m. — Hugh Cassell Elementary School — Dooms and Crimora Districts

3:25 p.m. — (Everywhere else)

We're not the only ones voting today. Here are some pics of the voting action around the country on Super Tuesday.

2:15 p.m. — Craigsville — Pastures District

— Lyra Bordelon

1:40 p.m. — Buffalo Gap — Pastures District

— Lyra Bordelon

1:10 p.m. — Staunton — Gypsy Hill Park Gym

STAUNTON - At Gypsy Hill Park, Ward 3 in Staunton, the sun is fully out, radiating over the gymnasium. Several groups are playing basketball in the courts. The Staunton Democratic Party has a tent set up outside.

“No good content for you this time,” election volunteer Jason Hochstetler told The News Leader’s reporter, referring to the early morning, quickly fixed ballot counter switch up in Staunton last November.

By 12:45 p.m., 153 voters have cast their ballots at the “uneventful” precinct.

With the sun out and an empty gym, the election volunteers are still enjoying themselves.

“We opened up the door over there,” said Hochstetler, referring to one of the exits. “We’re going to go get a little bit of sunshine. We’ve had enough down time to have some good conversation. I brought a book. We’re twiddling our thumbs. It has been just enough, sometimes anyway, so you’re in the middle of a conversation with somebody, somebody comes in, you’ve got to take a break.”

11:35 a.m. — Verona — Government Center

VERONA — The Augusta County Government Center was fairly quiet Tuesday morning. Lynn Stevens, an election official, said it had been “pretty steady” throughout the morning, with 71 votes cast by 11 a.m. Stevens said it’s also worth remembering that there had been 45 days of early voting, so a less than busy morning doesn’t necessarily mean people haven’t been voting.

Gerald Kinder showed up to vote and he and his wife would have been the 72nd and 73rd voters of the morning, but they were at the wrong location.

Kinder said he called to make sure he was supposed to come to Verona and was assured that was where he could vote. But when he and his wife showed up, they were told they needed to vote at Hugh K. Cassell Elementary School. Kinder did acknowledge that’s where they normally vote.

“They tell you one thing and then another,” he said. “It’s getting to be a pain in the ass.”

While all early, in-person voting in Augusta County is done at the Government Center, voting on Super Tuesdays in the primaries is done at the usual polling locations throughout the county.

As Kinder waited for his wife to bring the car around so they could head to Cassell, he said he thought it was important to vote in the primaries.

“We’ve got to get rid of these Democrats,” he said. “You’ve seen what they’ve done to this country. They’ve destroyed our country.”

Before he could answer any other questions, his wife pulled up to the curb and told him they had to get going. He climbed in the passenger side of their car and was, presumably, headed to Cassell to vote.

— Patrick Hite

10:56 a.m. — Waynesboro — Ward C

WAYNESBORO – Chief election volunteer Carol Baber and Waynesboro Board of Elections Vice Chair Scott Mares looked over documents and a map of the city as The News Leader’s reporter entered the room.

“We’ve had a pretty steady turnout,” said Baber. “We just looked at our numbers a few minutes ago. For a small precinct, we already had 74 people come in. It’s not even lunchtime yet. That is something different for us in Ward C.”

The “smooth” day was helped by the 45 days of early voting in Waynesboro, Baber told The News Leader. She encouraged voters to come out and vote in the primary they choose.

What happens next in Waynesboro? “We count them up,” Mares said.

The Board of Elections will meet twice over the next six day, on Wednesday and Monday, to process the ballots, according to Mares. The second day is scheduled to allow ballots already in the mail to come in, similar to what Marcy Reedy in Augusta County mentioned.

When asked if there’s anything he’d like voters to know as they went to the polls, Mares told The News Leader, “There’s nothing I can say.”

— Lyra Bordelon

9:10 a.m. — BRITE Bus Transit Services building — Wayne District

FISHERSVILLE - Gene and Danna Mullenax were the 20th and 21st voters at the BRITE Bus Transit Services building, a precinct in the Wayne Magisterial District of Augusta County. They cast their ballots just before 9 a.m.

—Lyra Bordelon

8:27 a.m. — White Hill Church of the Brethren — Riverheads District

STUARTS DRAFT - The White Hill Church of the Brethren is a precinct on a hill in Augusta County’s Riverheads Magisterial District.

Chief election volunteer Craig McCue told The News Leader 40 ballots have been cast at the church, as of 7:45 a.m.

“This is the first time I’ve had someone from the media come in while I’ve been chief,” said McCue. “And it happened when I’ve got my boss here!”

Marcy Reedy, a member of Augusta County’s Electoral Board, sat across from him. The News Leader spoke to Reedy as the electoral board tested the ballot counters in February. As noted in The Agenda, the electoral board will meet a few times this week to confirm election results and enter provisional ballots.

In Wednesday’s meeting, Reedy explained, “We’ll take the statement of results, pull them, and go precinct by precinct by precinct, one by one. We’ll confirm the totals and what was reported.” The confirmation method intentionally resembles the confirmation testing done last month, several reporting methods that should all give the same number of votes cast and to which candidate.

Historically, election results are unofficially announced in the evening after the election. The official totals aren’t determined until days later, after the mail system has been able to deliver mail in ballots. The deadline is noon on Friday in Augusta County, which is why another meeting is scheduled on Friday.

Until then, Reedy is visiting sites and coordinating election volunteers.

“Come out and vote, join us. It won’t be a length process,” Reedy relayed to The News Leader’s readers. “They can do it in a couple of minutes and we’ll take care of them.”

“If you’re interested in the voting process, get ahold of the electoral board and come volunteer,” McCue added.

“We can always use high quality officers of elections, Reedy agreed. “It’s a great way to give back and contribute.”

McCue looked on excitedly to the rest of the day.

“This is a great precinct here,” McCue said. “It’s a great group of people out in this area. I expect the same today.”

7:11 a.m. — Augusta County — Beverly Manor District

JOLIVUE - At the Victory Worship Center, a ward in Augusta’s Beverly Manor Magisterial District, no voters were present when The News Leader arrived around 6:50 a.m.So far, 12 voters had passed through the polling place.“That’s low, if you want to know,” added chief election volunteer Diana Desper.

—Lyra Bordelon

6:40 a.m. — Staunton Ward One — Third Presbyterian Church

It’s 5:45 a.m. and Stanton’s first voting ward is empty.

A black car pulled into the lot around 5:50 a.m. A white van followed.

Phyllis Garza got out of the black car. Though not the first to vote, she was the first to arrive.

“I just got off from work!” said Garza. “I thought I better do it now because I probably wouldn’t get up later to come and vote. That’s why I got out here. Cool, they’re open at six? Let me go.”

Garza said she was voting for Trump, citing the way he handled the economy and the United States’s southern border. Garza explained, “I’m hoping for a change.”

The second voter, who wished to remain anonymous, got out of the white van. He told The News Leader he came out to vote, go to the gym, then go to work.

“I haven’t decided yet, to be honest,” the second voter shared. “It’s kind of going to be a game time decision for me.” He couldn’t confirm if he was going to ask for either the Democratic or Republican ballot.

Inside, poll volunteers have already checked in the first three voters. The anonymous second voter sat in the booth. Elections officer John Hartman moves from table to table, talking to the volunteers and getting things in order. The ballot counter dings.

“Everytime you hear the ding means it’s counted and ballot and read it,” Hartman told The News Leader. “That’s how we’re able to know and tell the voter yes it’s registered your vote.”

The first ballot was cast before 6:10 a.m.

“Come out and vote!” Hartman said to all the potential voters in The News Leader’s readership. “Folks thinks that primaries are a little slow sometimes, and they are, but it’s still the right and, my option, of obligation for everyone to vote. We have our freedom that we take for granted. We need to utilize that freedom.”

The News Leader caught up to the second voter as he turned on the white van.

“I actually went for DeSantis,” he told The News Leader. “I know Nikki Haley has taken a couple of state and I don’t think Trump is worth the cloth he’s clothed in, so I went for somebody that wasn’t a real vote.”

—Lyra Bordelon

6:00 a.m.

Light seeps from behind clouds over the hills to the east of the city. The clocktower still glows in the pre-dawn light through a soft drizzle. The bell tolls.

And the polls are open on Super Tuesday.

Hundreds of Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro voters have already made their voices heard ahead of Super Tuesday and the presidential primary. Between the three localities, over 1,600 voters took advantage of early voting rather than waiting for election day.

There were 521 early voters in Staunton. Staunton General Registrar Christi Linhoss told The News Leader this was an average turnout, and expected the drop off from the 1,940 early ballots cast last November. Of the over 800 mail ballots sent out, as of noon Monday, only 430 have come back.

Linhoss reminded voters they would have to choose which party primary to participate in on site. Like previous elections, this is not restricted by any previous party affiliation.

"Come November, they can still vote however they want, but they can only pick one for the dual primary," explained Linhoss. "You can claim to your friends you're a Democrat and still request a Republican ballot."

In Waynesboro, 251 voters cast their ballots before the election. Of the 700 ballots mailed out, approximately 400 have been received.

In Augusta County, Chief Deputy Registrar Constance Evans told The News Leader 845 residents participated in early voting. Of the 1358 mail ballots sent out, 831 were mailed back to the county, as of 2 p.m. on Monday.

Similar to Linhoss, Evans reminded voters they would select which primary they wanted to vote in when they arrive to their precinct. All Augusta County precincts will be open for the election.

For more information, helpful links, and resources for the election, see  The News Leader's election guide.

The News Leader reported Augusta County’s ballot counters testing in February.

Reporters with The News Leader were on the ground with Nikki Haley and Donald Trump’s visit to Virginia this past weekend.

— Lyra Bordelon and Jeff Schwaner

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Super Tuesday Blog: What we're seeing at the polls in Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County