Democracy in Action: Whopping 14 Percent of Reston Households Elect Three New RA Board Members

We joke about RA's elections sometimes having the whiff of the Soviet about them, given that candidates have often run unopposed in the past. This year, that wasn't the case, with eight candidates seeking three seats on the RA Board of Directors. Even the apartment owner's seat generated a bit of write-in controversy this go-around. So um, yay democracy in action!

Jeff Thomas was elected to one of the at-large seats, defeating incumbent and board vice president Andy Sigle, as well as fellow challengers Reston Citizens Association President Colin Mills, Mason Miller, and Michael Mackert. So maybe those robocalls weren't such a bad idea after all.

Rachel Muir was elected to complete a one-year term on the other open at-large seat, defeating former RA CEO Gerald Valloy. Lucinda Shannon won an unopposed race for the Hunters Woods/Dogwood seat.

Apartment owners seat candidate Ellen Graves won her election against write-in candidate Kimberly Miller, 9-4. (That's not the margin of victory, BTW, that's the actual number of landed gentry rental complex owners that cast votes.)

The overall election numbers don't sound all that much larger, with a whopping 14 percent of RA households casting ballots, beating the required -- yet not that super high of a threshold -- 10 percent quorum. But the RA has, as they say in the movies, a plan:

In an effort to both reduce the financial impact of an election, and to align with Reston’s goals to be environmentally sustainable, approximately 54 percent of voters cast their ballots online this year. Voters were also asked to signify their interest in an online-only option to vote in future elections.

If you've got an hour and three minutes of free time on your hands, you can watch the full video of last night's annual meeting:



But if you had an hour and three minutes on your hands, you probably would have voted, the end.

Update: The board has selected its officers:

Ken Knueven will continue to serve as president. Ellen Graves was selected as vice president. Michael Sanio will be secretary and member, while John Higgins will continue to serve as treasurer.