Early voting turnout hits record numbers in Virginia

Record numbers of Virginians are voting early and requesting absentee ballots this year, as the coronavirus pandemic and newly loosened election laws reshape Old Dominion voting habits in a presidential year.

Some 100,356 voters have cast ballots in person since early voting began

Friday, while 884,032 have requested absentee ballots, state elections officials reported on Wednesday. In all of 2016, just under 353,000 Virginians opted for early in-person voting and about 185,000 voted absentee by mail, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project.

Voters in three solidly blue Northern Virginia congressional districts, where President Trump is deeply unpopular, have requested the most absentee ballots, led by 140,465 requests in the 8th District, which is represented by Rep. Don Beyer (D).

That’s nearly triple the 48,191 ballots requested in the bright red 9th District in the state’s rural southwest, which Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R) represents and Trump carried by 19 points four years ago.

“The great thing about Virginia is, you have no idea who’s requesting these ballots,” he said, noting that voters do not register by party in the state. “It could be every single Republican in those [Democratic] precincts requested those ballots.”


In any case, March said that Republicans are more inclined to wait to vote until Nov. 3. “Republicans are more likely to vote in person on Election Day,” he said. “That’s the sentiment I’ve gotten.”