Virginia voters approved three changes to the state constitution on November 3, unofficial results show. Lee County voted against all three, and by margins that put it among the handful of places in Virginia that opposed them most.
The Lee Daily Register compared the county’s vote with every other county and city, using the Virginia Department of Elections’ unofficial statewide results as of November 4. The percentages below count only yes and no votes. Provisional ballots and late mailed ballots had not yet been added, and five localities, including Fairfax County, were still finishing their counts. None of them is near Lee County in the rankings.
The three questions
| Question | Lee County yes | Virginia yes | Lee’s place among 133 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Reproductive freedom | 1,780 (27.2%) | 2,182,375 (62.4%) | 5th-lowest |
| 2. Marriage | 1,256 (19.1%) | 2,024,902 (57.4%) | 4th-lowest |
| 3. Voting rights | 1,607 (24.5%) | 1,988,832 (56.5%) | 5th-lowest |
Question 1 asked whether to protect the freedom to make decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management and fertility care, while allowing limits on abortion in the third trimester except when the patient’s health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive. In Lee County, 4,774 voters said no.
Question 2 asked whether to remove the constitution’s ban on same-sex marriage and affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender or race. It drew the county’s strongest opposition, with 5,314 no votes, about four in five.
Question 3 asked whether people convicted of a felony should get their right to vote back automatically when released from incarceration, instead of having to have them restored by the governor. It also changes the wording of the rule on voters found mentally incompetent. Here, 4,948 voters said no.
Where Lee County ranked
The few localities below Lee were all rural counties in the western part of the state. On the marriage question, only Buchanan County (15.2% yes), Russell County (18.1%) and Bland County (19.0%) gave it less support than Lee. On the reproductive freedom question, Buchanan, Bland, Russell and Craig counties were lower. On voting rights, Bland, Buchanan, Craig and Russell were lower.
Lee’s neighbors split. Scott County was just above Lee on each question, at 28.4% yes on Question 1, 20.5% on Question 2 and 25.0% on Question 3. Wise County was 2 to 6 points higher, at 30.3%, 25.4% and 26.7%. The City of Norton was the most supportive locality in the area, at 44.4%, 39.3% and 39.8%, though it still voted no on all three.
Statewide, Charlottesville gave the most support to all three, with more than 84% yes on each.
Early and mail voters leaned more toward yes
The state’s results split Lee County’s vote by how people voted, and that shows a gap. On Election Day, 24.9% of voters said yes to Question 1. Among the roughly 1,770 people who voted early in person or by mail, 33.1% did, by The Lee Daily Register’s calculation from the county totals and the Election Day counts.
The same pattern held on the other two. Question 2 drew 17.9% yes on Election Day and 22.3% among early and mail voters, and Question 3 drew 22.6% and 29.7%. The results do not say who those voters were, so the figures show only that the two groups voted differently, not why.
Precinct by precinct
The state reports precinct results for Election Day ballots only, and every one of the county’s 16 precincts voted no on all three questions. The table shows each precinct’s yes share.
| Precinct | Q1 yes | Q2 yes | Q3 yes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elydale | 30.6% | 21.1% | 25.5% |
| Ewing | 24.2% | 16.3% | 16.7% |
| Rose Hill | 25.5% | 16.0% | 23.3% |
| Blackwater | 26.7% | 18.1% | 23.3% |
| Flatwoods | 26.2% | 18.2% | 21.1% |
| Jonesville | 27.2% | 17.7% | 25.0% |
| Ben Hur | 22.8% | 16.5% | 22.3% |
| Woodway | 22.8% | 13.8% | 20.8% |
| Stickleyville | 26.0% | 22.2% | 25.1% |
| Jasper | 24.9% | 19.8% | 23.1% |
| Seminary | 18.2% | 15.8% | 15.8% |
| Dryden | 20.3% | 15.5% | 20.9% |
| Saint Charles | 27.0% | 20.2% | 23.9% |
| Pennington | 27.5% | 21.0% | 25.7% |
| Robbins Chapel | 20.3% | 10.1% | 20.3% |
| Keokee | 29.5% | 23.3% | 23.6% |
Elydale gave Question 1 its highest share, 30.6%, and Seminary its lowest, 18.2%. Robbins Chapel, the county’s smallest precinct, with 69 Election Day votes on the question, gave the marriage amendment 10.1% yes, the lowest of any precinct on any question. Seminary was also lowest on voting rights, at 15.8%.
More votes than the Senate race
The amendments drew more Lee County votes than the top race on the ballot. Question 2 had 6,570 yes and no votes, compared with 6,233 in the U.S. Senate race. The full results for Congress and the town races in Jonesville and Pennington Gap are in The Lee Daily Register’s election results story.
