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The good news is that one week later, with absentee ballots counted, we finally have results in Prince Edward County election races. The impressive part is how close some of these turned out to be. 

The closest race ended up being the one for Prince Edward’s Commissioner of Revenue. In the end, it was challenger Crystal Hensley winning with 50.41% of the vote (2,672 ballots). The incumbent, Edna Goldman, finished with 49.37% (2,617 ballots). 

A 29-year resident of Prince Edward County, Hensley started working for the county in 2018, when she took on a shared position in both the Treasurer and Commissioner of the Revenue office. In 2019, she took on a full-time position in the Commissioner of the Revenue’s office. In 2022, she accepted a full-time position in Dinwiddie County in the Commissioner of the Revenue’s office. Now she’ll return to take over in Prince Edward. 

We mentioned the closest race, but there were also a few that went the completely opposite direction, with one candidate collecting most, if not all of the ballots. The race for the District 8 seat on the Prince Edward School Board is one of those. Dr. Lawrence Varner currently holds the position, but he declined to run again. Not seeing anyone file, Cainan Townsend started a write-in campaign in September. He finished with 91% of the votes in what was a very small turnout. He received a total of 81 votes, with less than 100 overall cast. 

The current executive director at the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, Townsend has his own connection to Moton as he started as a volunteer at the museum before becoming an intern, part-time staff, director of education and then managing director. 

Absentee ballots and supervisor seats

We shift now to the four seats up for election on the Prince Edward Board of Supervisors. Harrison Jones stretched his lead, winning with 61% (445) to Dr. Peter Gur’s 37% (269 ballots). Then there was Bill Jenkins, who won with 52.31% of the vote (499 ballots) to 453 from O. Rex Williams. Dr. Odessa Pride received 66.97% of the vote in her district, collecting 373 to her write-in challenger’s 184. And finally, Pattie Cooper-Jones collected 99% of the votes in her district, winning with 236.