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ISLE OF WIGHT

Kathy Torrence will remain Isle of Wight County’s clerk of circuit court, having defeated challenger Jaime Mumford in the Nov. 3 special election with 11,902 votes to Mumford’s 9,178 according to unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections.

As of Friday afternoon, the Isle of Wight County Registrar’s Office was still awaiting results from 40 to 50 absentee ballots and another 95 to 100 provisional ballots. Even if every one of those ballots included a vote for Mumford, Torrence’s lead would be unaffected.

Many localities are anticipating higher-than-normal absentee ballot counts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Isle of Wight’s case, 3,607 county residents chose to vote by mail. Virginia law allows absentee votes to be counted through noon this Friday so long as ballots are postmarked by Nov. 3.

“I’m very appreciative of all the support from the county,” Torrence said upon learning of the election results. “I’m looking forward to continuing to serve the citizens of Isle of Wight as I have for the past 15 years.”

Mumford said she was honored to have received more than 9,000 votes and, while disappointed she didn’t win, remains “confident Isle of Wight is the best place to live and work.” She posted the following statement to her campaign Facebook page Nov. 4: “Just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for all of the support. I am so thankful for all of the votes that we did get. As per the unofficial results we only lost by 2,700 votes, so that was a pretty close race. Thank you to all of the volunteers for your hard work and devotion. Couldn’t have done it without you!”

As of Friday, Isle of Wight’s electoral board was planning to meet that afternoon to certify the vote totals, including absentee and provisional ballots, but Deputy Registrar Victoria Mainwaring said a final count might not be available until Monday.

Windsor Town Councilmen James “Greg” Willis and Walter Bernacki will also keep their seats for the next four years, the former having received 754 votes and the latter, 820. Joining them will be Jake Redd, who received 695 in-person votes. Of the 2,311 votes counted in the Town Council election as of Friday, there were 42 write-ins.