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Over 3,540 Albemarle voters have already cast their ballot in early voting, according to county registrar Jake Washburne.
Jim Heilman, a member of the county’s electoral board, gave an update to the Places29-Rio Community Advisory Committee last night as part of their monthly meeting.
There are 39 days including today until November 3, the final deadline for voting in this year’s federal election. Early voting is underway across Virginia and local election officials are trying to get the word out about what has changed in this pandemic year.
“We have basically a perfect storm of an election this year,” said Jim Heilman, a member of the Albemarle County Electoral Board. “All presidential elections are a storm for sure but this one has a lot of added things to it. We have a whole raft of new election laws.”
These include expanded early voting and no-excuse absentee voting. Heilman said the electoral board is not seeing a spike in new voter registrations.
“Voter registration is something that normally is spiking right now in a presidential year, but it’s not spiking here,” Heilman said. “It’s going up but it’s not spiking, and I think the main reason for that is because the normal ways of getting voter registration up by door-to-door registration drives and registration drives at concerts, Fridays after Five, none of those are happening.”
Heilman and the rest of the electoral board and staff are recommending people vote in advance to avoid large crowds on election day. There is a pandemic after all.
“However we do want to assure our voters that all 30 of our polling places will be open, and that we are making out best efforts to make that they are safe and clean on election day,” Heilman said.
If you still need to register to vote, visit this site.
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There are another 941 cases of COVID-19 reported today by the Virginia Department of Health, for a total of 144,433 since the pandemic began. At some point, Governor Ralph Northam and First Lady Pamela Northam will be among that number, as both tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday. That means they will be isolating for ten days.
“As I’ve been reminding Virginians throughout this crisis, COVID-19 is very real and very contagious,” said Governor Northam in a release. “The safety and health of our staff and close contacts is of utmost importance to Pam and me, and we are working closely with the Department of Health to ensure that everyone is well taken care of.”
Contact tracing is now underway.
Another 23 deaths are reported today, but that figure represents a continuing update as death certificates come into the VDH. The seven day average for positive PCR test results has dropped to 5.1 percent. Statewide, there is an additional case of the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, for a total of nine to date.
There are another 48 cases in the Thomas Jefferson Health District with 25 new cases in Charlottesville, and 18 from Albemarle. Looked at another way, there are 52 new cases per 100,000 people in Charlottesville, and 16.6 new cases per 100,000 in Albemarle. The seven-day rate for positive tests is now at 4.9 percent, up from 4.7 percent.
The University of Virginia reported another 22 cases yesterday, all students. The official number of active cases is now at 238, and that means people tested at UVA who were positive in the past ten days.
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Many who live in this region are unaware the confluence of the Rivanna and James Rivers in Fluvanna County is sacred ground for the Monacan Nation. Now the National Trust for Historic Protection has named the site known as Rassawek as one of its 11 most endangered places.
“Researchers verified Rassawek’s location in the 1880s, the 1930s and the 1980s,” reads a Preservation Virginia blog post on the announcement. “It is the Monacan equivalent of Werowocomoco, the Powhatan capital now planned to be a national park.”
The James River Water Authority has planned to locate a pump station on the site as part of an effort to bring public water to Zion Crossroads. In August, public pressure from the Monacan Nation and others led the Authority to hit pause on the planning process to explore previously discarded alternatives. The next meeting of the James River Water Authority is October 14.
(read Allison Wrabel’s Daily Progress article from August)
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Every part of the Earth contains plants that are home to that specific region. Some of these have fruits that make their way into the rest of the world, if they are a product that can be sold. But, what about the rest of the ecosystem from which that food comes from? Enrique Salmónis an ethnobotanist whose work is based on the belief that “all life-forms are interconnected and share the same breath.” That’s according to the materials for a presentation the Virginia Festival of the Book offered yesterday on Salmón’s book, Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science. He said he often gives his students this example.
“I ask them, ‘well, how many of you like guacamole?’ And of course most of them will raise their hands although there are always a couple that don’t like the texture of avacado,” Salmón said. “I ask them where does guacamole come from, and most of them will know that it’s avocado. And then I ask them what does an avocado tree look like, and that’s when only one or two hands will go up and then I ask when do you pick avocados and most of the time, they don’t really know.”
Salmón is head of the American Indian Studies Program at Cal State University-East Bay, in Hayward, California. The event can be watched on the Virginia Festival of the Book’s Facebook page.
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There are two meetings today both under the auspices of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC). The TJPDC’s Regional Housing Partnership begins a fall speaker series. At 11 a.m., Dr. Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist with Virginia Realtors, will talk about the impact of COVID-19 on the Charlottesville Area housing market. (register)
The Rivanna River Basin Commission will hold its annual conference at noon, this time virtually. There will be an update on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Improvement Plan (WIP), a presentation on Best Management Practices for Stormwater Management, and updates on local efforts to improve water quality. You can listen to the 2018 conference here. (more info and registration)
If you made it to this point, I thank you. You are also likely someone who would be interested in filling out this survey I am doing as part of a course I am taking with the Community Investment Collaborative. As I launch this new venture, I am seeking ways to understand more about how what people think about news and information. This is my first ever attempt at market research, and if you have a moment, I’d love to get your thoughts.
September 25, 2020: Over 3,500 Albemarle residents have voted; Governor Northam has COVID