Virginia’s 45-day early voting period starts Friday, which is one of the longest in the country.
Senator Aaron Rouse is chairman of the committee that oversees voting laws in Virginia, and he says Democrats will continue to reject Republican efforts to roll back early voting.
"It's very hypocritical for Republicans to bring bills forward in the General Assembly and actually sign on to bills that would restrict the number of early voting days, but then yet turn around and try to get their constituency to vote early," Rouse says.
Many of the bills trying to roll back early voting are presented as getting rid of pandemic-era changes to voting rules. But Delegate Cia Price is chairwoman of the House Privileges and Elections Committee, and she says the General Assembly approved of new voting rules like the 45 days of early voting before the pandemic.
"Some of the barriers that we got rid of and some of the changes that we made come out of the Jim Crow era, and so this was not a pandemic-focused response," Price says. "This was a democracy-focused and voter-focused response; many of these proposals that we got passed."
She says she plans to vote as part of Souls to the Polls – Sunday voting which is available in some parts of Virginia.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
