Local registrars await large turnout

An Election Day like none before it dawns today in Central Virginia, with large numbers of newly registered voters energized to participate in a historic turnout.

Rain could fall this afternoon, the National Weather Service said. Nothing else seemed likely Monday to dissuade voters from casting their ballots in record numbers.

Bedford County Registrar Barbara Gunter said she was expecting a 90 percent voter turnout. Already, 7 percent of the county’s 46,000 registrants have voted absentee, she said.

Those 3,300 votes won’t be counted until tonight, when they’re put into the returns along with today’s results.

The office’s phone rang non-stop Monday with people wanting to verify their registration status, Gunter said.

Excitement was also brewing in Lynchburg, where voter registration is up 14 percent because of the Barack Obama campaign’s voter-registration drive and Liberty University’s signup of 4,200 new voters.

Only four other places in Virginia exceeded Lynchburg’s percentage of new voters. They were: Williamsburg, with a 19.5 percent increase, followed by Petersburg, Richmond and Harrisonburg.

Lynchburg police officers will be on the lookout for traffic problems around polling precincts, said Capt. Wayne Duff of the police department.

“Because there is a lot of talk about record numbers of voters and lots of turnout, we are preparing to provide traffic control assistance,” Duff said.

Officers on patrol today have been given the locations of the polling precincts to monitor for cars that may be spilling out into the street and cause traffic jams.

“We will not have an officer assigned to work the polls,” Duff said. “We don’t anticipate a problem with voting occurring. We will concentrate on being visible and on traffic safety.”

Duff encouraged voters to be mindful of safety by looking for stopped cars in the road, people who may be crossing the street or other dangers.

- Staff writer Carrie J. Sidener contributed to this report.