Finally it is election day

Today is election day and the polls opened this morning at 6 a.m. and will remain open until   7 p.m. in both counties.  By tomorrow we will know who will be our congressional representative in 2025 and 2026,  who will serve as local town council members and mayors of 18 Eastern Shore towns.

However, due to the closeness of the race, there is no guarantee that we will know who will serve as President on Wednesday.

If you have not registered to vote, you can still do so by submitting a provisional ballot which will not be included in the vote totals until approved by the local electoral boards.

But for sure we will be able to listen to the radio and watch TV without being assaulted by ads predicting the supposedly catastrophic consequences of electing a Demcrat or Republican to the White House. We remind everyone who has yard signs to take them up as soon as possible.

However, voters in 4 Eastern Shore towns will face ballots that will have vacancies for town council seats and for one mayoral seat for which no one signed up to run,

The Town of Accomac had 3 individuals to sign up for 6 open Town Council Seats. The Town of Hallwood only has two candidates for 6 seats.  Melfa has 4 candidates for six seats and the Mayor of Melfa had no official candidates sign up for mayor.  Keller has 5 running for 6 seats. In Nassawadox there are four candidates for 6 seats.

In these towns, the option exists for citizens to write in candidates for the seats for which no candidates emerged.  Successful write ins will have the option of filling the vacant seats or could decline as well.

In Melfa  sitting mayor Charles Wilbur did not submit the paperwork in time to have it included on the ballot.

On Wednesday we will know how many write ins were submitted and if there are any still vacant seats on the local town councils.

As always, WESR will be on the air with local returns as they come in.  We will also keep track of the second congressional district race. We will also be posting updates on shoredailynews.com,  The local vote totals we post tonight will not include either the provisional ballot results or those of mail in voters whose ballots were not received in time to be included in the preliminary totals.