Voter Turnout Surprisingly Strong

For an off-year, non-national, non-statewide election, the voter turnout in Golden Valley was relatively strong.

Both the eighth and sixth precincts had over 450 voters cast ballots with less than an hour to go before the polls closed. In both, that was roughly 25 percent of the registered voters.

By the end of the night, about 29 percent of registered voters, or 4086 people, cast ballots in Golden Valley's city elections.

”We have had a steady stream of voters all day, and they have been a diverse group of all ages” said Inez Weist, a resident of the city since 1953 who said 2011 was “about my 20th time as an election judge.”

The eighth precinct election judges at the said they were expecting only about three hundred voters, but they saw nearly five hundred by 8 p.m.

Among those voters was Bruce Fraser.  Accompanied by his 5-year-old daughter Lauren, Fraser said he was there “to support my candidates, especially in the city races.

“I am generally happy with Mayor (Linda) Loomis”, said Fraser who lives by Brookview Golf course.

Aaron and Teresa Black, who live on Utah Avenue, also voted at the eighth precinct.

“We spent a good deal of time looking at the candidate’s web sites,” Black said.

He felt the campaigning was civil and that throughout Golden Valley there were no signs of the sharp divides or outward hostility seen at the state and national political levels.

Black, who was born the day of the Watergate break in 1972, said he and his wife vote in all elections. They were introducing their three young children ages five, seven and eight, who accompanied their parents to the polls, to the election process.