Thank You Charlottesville

To all of the Charlottesville residents who voted in yesterday's election, to all of the supporters who donated time, energy and/or money to our campaign, to all of my fellow candidates, to my family and friends, I offer you all a huge word of thanks. While I am a bundle of mixed emotions today due to some of yesterday's other results, I am humbled by the trust you've shown in me and I hope to sustain your trust in the years ahead.

10,265 residents of Charlottesville cast a ballot yesterday. Typically, around 10-15% of people who vote in presidential or gubernatorial elections do not vote for down-ballot contests, like the one for City Council. If that pattern held true yesterday (which we know it did for other down-ballot positions), we can estimate that around 9,000 people participated in this year's City Council election, each of them voting for up to 2 candidates. Of that group,

* 6,300 people (or approx. 70% of voters) cast one of their votes for me
* 5,083 people (approx. 57%) cast one of their votes for Kristin Szakos
* 3,293 people (approx. 37%) cast one of their votes for Bob Fenwick
* 1,214 people (approx. 14%) cast one of their votes for Paul Long
* 382 people (approx. 4%) cast a write-in vote (presumably, many for Andrew Williams)

In the race for City Sheriff, James Brown won with 62% of the vote vs. 38% for Paul Best.

Kristin, James and I have each been running for 9 or 10 months, first for the citywide primary in May and then for the last 6 months as a general election ticket ("Your Charlottesville"). It was a long haul, but the destination was worth the journey. I am looking forward to serving with both of them in the years ahead.

Daily Progress recaps: "Szakos, Norris Get Easy Victories"; "Brown Wins Sheriff Post"

below: James, Kristin and I at the Election Night party @ Siips, photo by Jim Nix; following, Election Day portrait by Rick Sincere (http://ricksincerethoughts.blogspot.com/2009/11/election-day-2009-photos.html)