Tomorrow is election day and our opportunity to select who will represent us on councils and school boards across the state. Here in Norfolk, we will be electing our mayor for the first time since 1916. In addition, we will be selecting representatives in three contested ward races: Ward 1, Ward 2, and Ward 5. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Our right to vote is one of the great principles of democracy that we have tried to export to other countries. As I searched the web for a picture to include with this post, I was struck by the number of images that exist, from “I Voted” buttons to a finger with purple ink. Not only is that right to be exercised, I believe voting is a responsibility, one that I accept willingly as a participant in this great experiment that democracy is. We have seen the effects over time of voter suppression, but the largest source of voter suppression is the voters themselves. To me, not voting means you give up your right to complain. If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
And now a few words from TJ:
I believe we may lessen the danger of buying and selling votes by making the number of voters too great for any means of purchase.
–Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moor, 1800. FE 7:454
We believe that… proximate choice and power of removal [are] the best security which experience has sanctioned for ensuring an honest conduct in the functionaries of society.
–Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:488
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I am very proud to have fulfilled my responsibilty and selected my candidate(s) of choice. Can I get clarification? The law requires candidates/their supporters to be X number of feet from the entrance to the voting station. At my voting place the entrance is on the corner of the building. There is a sidewalk around the building and the supporters WERE on the sidewalk. There is also a walkway from the entrance of the voting tstation o the sidewalk. This walkway is on a diagnal from the entry door to the sidewalk. My question is this: Why are the candidate supporters permitted to stand right AT that junction (where the walkway meets the sidewalk)? One of the candidates had supporters where were right there! The other candidates supporters were a distance away from that point (YEAH FOR THEM!!). I have been voting for almost 20 years and this bothered me. Clearly they support their candidate and all they asked me was who I was voting for and telling me that their candidate was the one to best represent me but dang! That was too close to the door for me! Are they allowed to do that here in Va? I literally had to go around one supporter who, and let me be clear… she was NOT blocking the entrance, but she was someone I could not avoid and had to interact with in order to enter the voting place. Again, let me be clear: I did not feel compelled to vote for their candidate, they did not put any undue pressure on me and in fact thanked me afterward for voting because “that is the important thing.”, but I have a pretty strong personality and my decision was made before I arrived at the voting station.
Lawrence: I believe Virginia law requires that poll workers not distribute literature within 40 feet of the polling place, which generally means the entrance. Most of the polling places will actually chalk a line showing the 40 feet. I’m a bit surprised that people would be any closer than that. If you didn’t complain to the electoral officials inside, perhaps a phone call to the Norfolk Board of Elections is in order.