Ugh. I wish I had better news to report, but voter turnout in this heavily Democratic precinct (85-15 Democratic vote) was ultra light as of 6:30 a.m. today. I had NO wait to vote today at 6:30 a.m.
Needless to say, this compares HIGHLY unfavorably to recent elections.
More on the flip.
In 2006, I arrived to vote at 7:15 a.m. and didn't get to vote until 8:00 a.m. I was about the 300-350th person to vote in our precinct.
In the 2008 PRIMARY election, I arrived to vote at 6:50 a.m. and was the 101st person to vote in the Democratic primary.
Today, I think I was the 15th(?) person to vote on my machine today at 6:35 a.m. Given 1-2 test votes per machine (?), my guess is that I was anywhere between the 60th and 70th person to vote.
My wife voted at about 6:10 a.m. and reported no wait as well. This compares to very long waits for her in the 2008 and 2006 elections when she went early.
Now, you should take this with a grain of salt. There are no competitive races on the ballot. Moran usually rolls to a 30+ point victory (closest was in 2002 when he won by only 20 points). No Senate race in Virginia and no Gubernatorial contest (McDonnell won by 20 points last year). Just Arlington County Board and School Board and some VA constitutional issues and bond issues. So light turnout could be do the fact that there isn't really much of a reason to vote this cycle after 3 important elections in a row.
Sorry for the downer news.