Shenandoah voters confused over write-in process as Reisinger falls short
By Randy Arrington
SHENANDOAH, Nov. 14 — With 1,133 ballots cast in the Town of Shenandoah’s race for mayor, incumbent Clinton Lucas Jr. will enter his 18th two-year term in January after fending off a late write-in campaign by Councilman Chris Reisinger by a mere 34 votes.
Members of the Page County Electoral Board met on Tuesday and Wednesday to finalize and validate all provisional ballots, which were at an all-time high during the 2024 election cycle, according to Page County Voter Registrar Carol Gaunt.
“This was the highest by far because we’ve only been [allowing same-day registration] a few years,” Gaunt told PVN on Thursday afternoon as final results were being entered into the state system by local election officials. The Electoral Board is set to certify the Page County results on Friday, Nov. 15.
“Not only did we have more provisional ballots this year during early voting, but across the county we had 228 people vote and register on Election Day (creating a provisional ballot)…50 of those were in [the Town of] Shenandoah,” Gaunt continued. “Usually we have about 25 to 30 during past elections…sometimes just a handful. It just went crazy this year.”
The record-high number of provisional ballots can mostly be contributed to the relatively new allowance for same-day registration for voters. Each of those individuals must be reviewed for eligibility, thus making their ballots “provisional” until eligibility is confirmed. In addition, newer rules also allow for any mail-in ballot that is postmarked by Election Day (Nov. 5) and received at the voter registrar’s office by Friday, Nov. 8 at the close of business, to be counted. Gaunt noted that some more populated areas had to sort through and verify as many as 14,000 provisional ballots over the past nine days.
These provisional ballots, coupled with a high number of write-in ballots that had to be counted by hand, delayed final results until now. Residents of Shenandoah have flooded the registrar’s office with calls over the past week, wondering who the next mayor would be in January. Well, now it’s official — the Town of Shenandoah will have the same mayor it has had since July 1, 1990. Lucas, the only name on the 2024 ballot, earned 556 votes, compared to 522 write-in ballots for Reisinger. This was only the sixth time that Lucas has even been challenged for the mayor’s gavel during 18 election cycles spread out over 34-and-a-half years.
However, it appears that some voters may have been confused about the write-in process, and the final results in the Shenandoah mayor’s race could have been even closer than the 34-vote margin that is now part of the “official” election results. About two dozen voters cast write-in ballots for Gary Red Taylor for mayor, despite the fact that he was a write-in candidate for council. A handful of write-in votes for mayor went to Ana Maria Mendez even though she was also a write-in candidate for council. Reisinger also received about 10 write-in votes for council, even though he was listed on the ballot as a council candidate.
There were a total of 55 write-in votes cast for mayor in Shenandoah that didn’t count for Lucas or Reisinger. Those ballots were spread out among more than two dozen names. Virginia State Code dictates that the vast majority of write-in candidates — such as “Snoopy” or someone simply voting for themselves — is recorded as “other.” A write-in candidate must earn at least 10 percent of the votes cast in order to be recorded.
In the race for Shenandoah Council, a total of 232 write-in votes were cast for Taylor, while 142 went for Mendez. The other 44 write-in votes for council were spread out among more than 30 names. One voter even cast a write-in ballot for themselves in the mayor’s race, and for ALL THREE open seats on the Shenandoah Council. Those write-in ballots were not enough to unseat Reisinger, who earned 781 votes to retain the council seat he was appointed to fill after Russ Comer resigned in the summer of 2023. Brenda Haggett drew 509 ballots and will join the council in January. Councilman Mike Lowe held on to his seat for another four years after claiming the third open seat with 440 votes.
In the race for mayor of Stanley, Councilman Doug Purdham earned 268 of 310 write-in votes. Neither figure was enough to overtake incumbent Michael Knight who drew 432 votes.
In the race for mayor of Luray, council member Stephanie Lillard officially won the gavel by 211 votes over fellow councilman and vice mayor Ron Vickers. Lillard earned 1,318 votes, compared to Vickers’ 1,107.
The number of registered voters countywide was adjusted to 17,950 — 83 more than the Nov. 10 adjustment — and the total number of ballots cast rose by 10 to 13,111. Voter turnout remains at 73 percent, as reported on Nov. 6.
Next week, state election officials will be conducting a random audits of ballots in the 2024 election.
To view 2024 Election Results for Page County — CLICK HERE
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