winterbadger | Northern Virginia may have been critical battleground in election (Reply)

Every discussion of politics in the Old Dominion eventually comes back to Northern Virginia, and numbers show why. Anchored by the state's largest jurisdiction and home to two of the nation's fastest-growing counties, there are nearly 400,000 more voting-age adults in the region than when Allen won in 2000, and they were not kind to his candidacy Tuesday.

Even when he ran in 2000 against a Northern Virginian, former senator Charles S. Robb, Allen lost by only 3 percentage points and 30,000 votes. This year, Webb beat Allen by 116,000 votes and 17 points in the region. About half of that margin came from Fairfax County, the state's biggest place and an important symbol of the change in the state's politics.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110802578.html

After a bitter race, which will determine what party controls the Senate, where the outcome is still uncertain, and which will turn on a few thousand votes out of a total of over 2 million, don't anyone, ANYONE dare to tell me their vote isn't important and doesn't count.

This was a critical election, and voters in Virginia may have been able to help turn the tide. Thank you, everyone who voted, and extra thanks to those who worked for the candidates and parties--telling people about the issues, getting voters to polls--and to those who staffed polls, making sure that people were able to vote. Democracy works because of you guys!