Herndon Election: Coronavirus Impact A Top Issue

Herndon VA

02 November, 2020

8:01 AM

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Updated at 7 p.m. HERNDON, VA — On Tuesday, Herndon residents will be heading to the polls to cast their vote in a number of races — both national and local. This year, Herndon voters will decide on races for president and vice president, U.S. House and U.S. Senate as well as state constitutional amendments, Fairfax County bond questions, and the Herndon Mayor and Town Council members. With about an hour before the polls closed at the Herndon Community Center, Samiha Gdoura made it out to vote. Although she was aware that she could've voted early, she wanted to vote on Tuesday. "We want to choose the right person for the presidency," Samiha Gdoura of Herndon said. "It matters for all of us here and for the world." Jasmine Pierson of Herndon took a more pragmatic approach to her decision to vote. "I think our president is not doing a great job, and I'd like to make a change," she said. "Neither of them is a great candidate, but I guess we can settle for the lesser of the two horribles, at least for me in my situation. They're both terrible." Virginians are expected to choose former Vice President Joe Biden (D) over President Donald Trump by a wide margin, according to a recent poll by FiveThirtyEight. In addition, incumbent Sen. Mark Warner (D) is expected to beat challenger Daniel M. Gade (R). In the Herndon mayor's race, current Vice Mayor Sheila A. Olem is running agains Roland B. Taylor. The race for the Herndon Town Council boasts eight candidates: Naila Alam, Cesar A. del Aguila, Pradip Dhakal, Signe V. Friedrichs, Clark A. Hedrick, Stevan M. Porter, Sean M. Regan, Jasbinder Singh Amid concerns about possible exposure to the new coronavirus, many Herndon voters have already cast absentee ballots or voted at one of the early voting centers around the county. Mailed ballots must be postmarked or otherwise demonstrated to have been sent on or before Election Day to be counted. Read Patch's full voters guide for the Town of Herndon. While much of the focus of the 2020 election coverage has been on the presidential race, there are a number of issues affecting Herndon residents that candidates running for office have been highlighting. Chief among these have been the economic impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In the mayor's race, Taylor pointed to the negative impacts on the economy from the coronavirus pandemic as the most pressing issue facing Herndon. "We know after COVID-19, many business models will change," he said. "Office space may reduce, lowering commuters, and impact lunch traffic. These and others will reduce taxes paid and Town revenues." Until a cure or vaccine is found to the virus, the goal of Herndon's leaders must be the health and safety of its citizens and staff, according to Olem. "As elected officials we legislate, and we are extremely fortunate to to have professional, dedicated staff taking care of the day to day business of running our town, including helping our businesses adjust to the new norms, keeping our trash picked up, managing our current projects and keeping our town safe," she said. "Our management team has done an excellent job in the last several years keeping our finances in order so our core services have been able to continue during this time of uncertainty." Return to Patch for tonight's local election results: Subscribe to free News Alerts. In the Town Council race, Hedrick also identified the impact of the coronavirus as the biggest challenge facing Herndon. "Due to uncertain revenue projects, the Town must exercise extreme budget discipline and fiscal restraint in order to maintain service standards and town personnel," he said. "The Council must find long-term efficiencies in order to stabilize the budget and make required investments to relieve stress on the Town's infrastructure." Friedrichs agreed the single most pressing issue facing Herndon is recovery from the pandemic. "At this point, cut spending (already in progress), try not to cut staff because of the cascading social and economic implications for us and them, help business by suspending regulations that do not affect the safety of the Town in the short term," she said. "As a last resort, cutting staff and/or raising usage fees such as water or refuse removal." Porter laid out three approaches to addressing the financial recovery and adjustments due to the pandemic, which he considered the greatest issue facing the Town. "There are three primary things we will need to do about it. 1) Carefully examine spending priorities and what services the community truly wants the Town to provide. 2) Determine how to fund those services. This needs to include both tax strategies (significantly raising taxes in this economony would be counter productive) and also looking at innovative ways to better involve residents, businesses, and organizations in solutions. 3) Developing plans to help mitigate the impact of any future events." For de Aguila, his approach to addressing the impact of the coronavirus would be to help prioritize cuts and find new sources of revenue. Regan identified the primary issue facing Herndon was to maintain town services and public safety during the pandemic. But not all Town Council candidates saw the pandemic and its effects as the biggest issue facing Herndon. Alam identified affordable housing for underserved families as the most pressing issue facing town residents. "There is a large number of immigrants who consider Herndon their home," she said. "They work for the benefit of the Town and neighborhoods. It's important that their American dream should be fulfilled." Singh pointed to greater transparency in government and issues relating to downtown development as the issue that concerned him most. He also called for a reverse of the anti-transparency policies of the last eight years. All candidates running in Herndon were invited to fill out a candidate questionnaire: Herndon Mayor Meet The Candidate: Sheila A Olem For Herndon MayorMeet The Candidate: Roland Taylor For Herndon Mayor Herndon Town Council Meet The Candidate: Naila Alam For Herndon Town CouncilMeet The Candidate: Cesar del Aguila For Herndon Town CouncilMeet The Candidate: Signe Friedrichs For Herndon Town CouncilMeet The Candidate: Clark Hedrick For Herndon Town CouncilMeet The Candidate: Stevan Porter For Herndon Town CouncilMeet The Candidate: Sean Regan For Herndon Town CouncilMeet The Candidate: Jasbinder Singh For Herndon Town Council Visit the Virginia Department of Elections website to access election results.