Virginia counties vote overwhelmingly to keep Confederate monuments
By Dave Ress
Daily Press |
Nov 03, 2021 at 12:58 PM
Middle Peninsula voters overwhelmingly want to keep their Confederate monuments, according to results of advisory referendums in Mathews and Middlesex counties.
Mathews voters rejected a proposal to relocate the county’s Soldier’s & Sailor’s Monument on its court green at the corner of Court and Church streets by 3,778, or 80% of ballots cast, to 939, or 20%.
In Middlesex, the vote against moving its Civil War Monument from the courthouse grounds in Saluda was 3,229, or 75% of ballots cast, to 1,076.
A CNN statewide exit poll of voters asked about who they backed in the lieutenant governor’s race found stark partisan differences on the issue: 85% of those who said they supported the successful GOP candidate, Winsome Sears, said Confederate memorials should remain in place while 88% of those backing Democrat Hala Ayala said they ought to be removed.
The Mathews total exceeded by roughly 300 votes the ballots cast for Republican statewide candidates, but the Middlesex total lagged its GOP statewide tally by about 500 votes.
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