Over half a million Virginians have already cast their ballots in the gubernatorial election. Early voting has been open since September 17, and will close Saturday, October 30.
In Charlottesville, as of October 24, nearly 3,600 residents have voted early. About 1,200 cast their ballots by mail, and more than 2,300 lined up at the City Hall Annex to vote in person.
“Our voters that are coming out have been very enthused to come out [and] support a specific candidate,” says Taylor Yowell, acting general registrar and director of elections for Charlottesville. “The energy definitely picked up this past week, and we’ve had a higher turnout.”
Compared to the last gubernatorial election, early voting has drastically increased statewide—in 2017, around 1,450 residents cast their ballots early in Charlottesville. This year’s spike is thanks in part to Virginia’s new voting laws, which have made voting much easier. Last year, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly lifted decades-long restrictions on absentee voting, allowing voters to cast their ballots early by mail or in person without an excuse.
Still, this election’s turnout pales in comparison to the 2020 national election, which is typical. Eighteen-thousand residents voted early in Charlottesville last November, with the majority pulling the lever in person. In 2016, around 3,400 voters headed to the polls before Election Day.
Last week, between 130 and 150 voters cast their ballots downtown each day, according to Yowell. Because the city now has four ballot-marking stations, the average wait time has been only a couple of minutes.
“Last year, we were only able to have two [stations]…and we had between 300 and 400 people a day, so of course there was a line there,” says Yowell. But this election, “the lines have been moving very quickly.”
Things haven’t been going quite as smoothly for those voting by mail.
Election officials sent 2,500 absentee ballots to Charlottesville voters this year, and less than half of those have been sent back, says Yowell. “It’s still a good amount of mail ballots going out and coming back in, but it just doesn’t compare to last year,” when only around 590 ballots were not sent back.
Over the past year, Charlottesville—along with counties across the state—has experienced severe mail delays. Some residents have gone weeks without receiving any mail at all, largely due to staff shortages and poor management at area post offices.
“We have a lot of voters concerned over that, and have had to reissue quite a few ballots, due to them not receiving the initial one when it went out with a large batch,” says Yowell.
To make sure their ballot gets counted, “a lot of voters, rather than sending them back through the mail…they are dropping them in our drop boxes here in our office,” she adds.
Though some residents chose to vote early this year due to pandemic concerns, Yowell does not think voters are as wary of large crowds as they were last year, and expects a significant turnout on Election Day.
“So many people are vaccinated now, so they feel comfortable being around a crowd,” she says. “Some people that I talked to are actually excited to go to the polls on Election Day and see people out there voting.”