The results in from the City of Falls Church’s three wards, four candidates out of five won seats on the F.C. City Council tonight. In the order of total votes received, Marybeth Connelly, David Snyder, Karen Oliver and Dan Sze were winners, and Robert LaJeunesse failed to capture a seat. In the other contested matter on the local F.C. ballot, a referendum to approve the sale of the Falls Church water system to Fairfax County was approved by an overwhelming margin, with 87.4 percent voting “yes.”

A surprise was that Connelly received the highest vote total, at 3,515 votes (results still unofficial), supplanting Snyder who has historically won that position since first running in 1994. Connelly, Oliver and LaJeunesse were all running for public office for the first time, while Snyder won his sixth term on the Council and Sze returns to the Council after one term from 2006-2010, not seeking re-election in 2010.

Unofficial voter turnout was 54.6 percent of registered voters in the City, up by five percentage points from the last gubernatorial election in 2009.

The statewide Democratic slate of McAuliffe for governor, Northam for lieutenant governor and Herring for attorney general also carried Falls Church’s three wards by wide margins. Running for the first time to replace Del. Jim Scott as the delegate from the 53rd district of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church, Marcus Simon also won handily in the City.