Virginia has the longest period of early voting in the country, which starts Friday.
One recent change to voting in Virginia that was extremely significant and yet perhaps not widely recognized is the ability for voters to sign up to be on a list to get an absentee ballot for every election. That includes congressional elections, state elections and even special elections.
Ben Tribbett is a Democratic strategist who says that permanent absentee list gives Democrats a huge advantage in low-turnout elections.
"The returns this year of people requesting permanent absentee add-ons to the list are about 50-50," says Tribbett. "So, the Republicans are going to gain in percentage because it was in the ballpark of 75-25 before but they're not picking up margin."
New polling from Founders Insight says most Republicans are still planning to vote on Election Day, while most Democrats are planning to vote early. Parker Slaybaugh recently created Founders Insight after leaving the Youngkin administration.
"So, even though we will still kind of see a sizable difference between Republicans and Democrats on who plans to vote early versus planning to vote on Election Day, it's undeniable that more people are going to vote early than in years past," Slaybaugh says.
Friday is the first day of voting, and voters will be able to cast an early ballot all the way up to the weekend before the election.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
