HARRISONBURG, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) – The Democratic slate of candidates are projected to win the four-way race for Harrisonburg City Council.

Mayor Deanna Reed appears to be reelected as she earned 8,113 votes, while Vice Mayor Laura Dent also appeared to be reelected with 7,497 votes. Newcomer Nasser Alsaadun finished third with 6,053 votes, meaning he would replace council member Chris Jones after his defeat in the Democratic primary election earlier this summer.

Independent candidate Javier Calleja finished last, with 5,976 of the votes counted so far.

All eight of Harrisonburg’s voting precincts reported unofficial results for the 2024 election, with 15,051 votes counted shortly before 9:30 p.m. However, that does not include 2,351 provisional ballots that are waiting to be counted, likely impacting the outcome of the results as they stood Tuesday night.

This year’s general election was the first since Virginia began allowing same-day registration for voters along with provisional voting in 2022. According to City Registrar Mark Finks, many of the same-day registrations were at Smithland Elementary School and the Simms Center.

“We just weren’t expecting the number of same-day registrations and the places we had them,” Finks said Tuesday night. “We were expecting to have a high number, but the places we thought we’d have them, we didn’t have them there, but then we ended up having them at other places that we had not planned to have them.”

Despite the surprise, Finks said the day went smoothly for those working the polls.

The Registrar’s Office has until Friday, Nov. 15, to certify official results from the city’s precincts, including post-election day votes and provisional ballots.