Early voting in Virginia dips below 2020 levels as parties push for final turnout surge

One day before the presidential election, early voting turnout in Virginia is falling short of the historic highs seen in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Sunday, more than 2.29 million Virginians have already cast their ballots — a 525,000 decrease from the unprecedented 2.82 million early votes cast by Nov. 3, 2020, during the last presidential election, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project.

In-person was the most popular option for early voters this year. On Saturday alone — the last day for early in-person voting during this election cycle — 139,376 cast their ballot. In total, 1.856 million early voters did so in person, with just 437,173 voting by mail.

Despite an initial wave of early voting in the southern and western parts of the state, the pattern of early ballot casting is about the same as some elections in more recent years, said David Richards, a political science professor at the University of Lynchburg.



https://virginiamercury.com/briefs/early-voting-in-virginia-dips-below-2020-levels-as-parties-push-for-final-turnout-surge/