Lunenburg County voters overwhelmingly cast votes for the Republican candidates for president and Virginia’s 5th U.S. Congressional District. With all 12 of the county’s precincts having reported in less than two hours after closing, Lunenburg voters chose Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton for president and current state Sen. Tom Garrett Jr. over Democratic rival Jane Dittmar. In both cases, the Republican candidates won the county’s vote by nearly 2-1 margins. According to figures from the Virginia Department of Elections’ (VDOE) website, out of 5,587 votes cast, Trump received 3,206, or 57.38 percent, of the county’s votes. Clinton received 2,226, or 39.84 percent, of the votes. Third-party candidates trailed far behind in Lunenburg County. Libertarian Gary Johnson earned 88, or 1.58 percent of the votes; independent Evan McMullin, 32 votes (0.32 percent); and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, 25 (0.45 percent). There were 10 write-in votes cast for president.

In the 5th Congressional District race, Garrett received 3,171, or 61.06 percent of the votes, while Dittmar earned 2,016 votes (38.82 percent). There were six write-in votes for this election.

Garrett will vacate his 22nd District state senate seat in order to head to the U.S. House of Representatives. This will force a special election for the state Senate seat, for which the VDOE will be responsible for setting dates for candidacy filings, primaries, election and necessary run-offs.

Like all voters across the commonwealth, eligible Lunenburg residents also made their choices known concerning two Constitution of Virginia amendments. The first asked whether or not to write the commonwealth’s so-called “right to work” laws into the constitution, making them harder to amend or rescind. The second asked if localities should be able to pass ordinances exempting the spouses of certain emergency workers who die in the line of duty from having to pay real property taxes on their primary residences.

Lunenburg County voters split almost evenly on the first question, narrowly saying “no” to the “right to work” amendment. County residents cast 2,710 “no” votes and 2,502 “yes” votes for a 52 percent to 48 percent split.

On the other hand, voters overwhelmingly supported the property tax exemption amendment, casting 3,982 “yes” votes and 1,281 “no” votes for a difference of 75.66 percent to 24.34 percent.

Election officials were not able to reached after returns were completed Tuesday night for comment on how the day’s voting went.