General elections set

Published 3:59 pm Wednesday, October 31, 2018

General elections in Lunenburg County will be held Nov. 6 and according to information from Lunenburg County’s Registrar Carolyn Parsons, no local county or city candidates will appear on the ballot.

Information from the Registrar’s Office said “the new law requires voters to show an acceptable photo ID when voting in person. Voters who do not have an acceptable photo ID can receive a free Virginia Voter photo ID card from any local voter registration office.”

Polling hours throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia will run from 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

The voting ballot in Lunenburg will include a member of the United States Senate and Member of the 5th District House of Representatives.

According to official information from the Virginia Department of Elections, for the United States Senate, Corey A. Stewart (R-), Timothy M. Kaine (D-) and Matt J. Waters (L-) will race for the seat.

Denver L. Riggleman (R-) and Leslie C. Cockburn (D-) will run for the 5th District House of Representatives seat.

Parsons also said a lot of people did not realize that two proposed constitutional amendments will appear on the ballot this time.

According to the Virginia Department of Elections, Article X, will fall under the Bill of Rights category, specifically, taxation and finance.

The ballot question includes, “Should a county, city, or town be authorized to provide a partial tax exemption for real property that is subject to recurrent flooding, if flooding resiliency improvements have been made on the property?”

The Virginia Department of elections said the proposed amendment would, if passed, give authorization to the General Assembly that would allow localities “to provide a partial tax exemption for real property that is subject to recurrent flooding, if improvements have been made on the property to address flooding.”

However, participating localities and the General Assemblies would retain the right to place restrictions or conditions for the tax exemption.

In addition, the second question to appear on the ballot would also focus on taxation and finance stating “Shall the real property tax exemption for a primary residence that is currently provided to the surviving spouses of veterans who had a one hundred percent service-connected, permanent, and total disability be amended to allow the surviving spouse to move to a different primary residence and still claim the exemption?”

In light of the proposed amendment, The Virginia Department of Elections said if passed, would allow the surviving spouse of a veteran who has a 100 percent “service-connected, permanent and total disability to continue to claim the tax exemption currently provided …” even if the surviving spouse were to move to a new principal place of residence owned by the surviving spouse.

The Last day for in person absentee voting at the Lunenburg County Registrar’s Office is Nov. 3 and the office is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.