Ever since Virginia expanded early voting in 2021, more people have been using absentee mail-in and early in-person voting options.
But if current numbers hold, Virginia Democrats could blow previous primary early voting records out of the water.
According to the Virginia Public Access Project, by the end of the June primary in 2021, with five gubernatorial candidates on the ballot, Virginia Democrats had cast about 125,000 primary votes. In June 2023, with all House of Delegates and state Senate seats on the line, it hit 129,000.
But as of last week, according to the Virginia Board of Elections, that number is over 80,000 votes so far this year.
And there’s still three more weeks of early voting left to go. Many localities will also soon open early in-person voting locations, where a majority of early votes take place.
“I’m just pleased to see the energy for our candidates,” said Senator Lamont Bagby, the chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia.
For University of Mary Washington Political Science professor Stephen Farnsworth, he said the increase in early votes shows excitement among Democrats across the Commonwealth.
“The Washington narrative that Democrats are dispirited and the activists are hopeless," he said. "That’s just not supported by these early voting numbers in Virginia.”
In fact, Farnsworth thinks its action coming out of Washington — via the Trump administration — that may be firing Virginia Democrats up.
“In Virginia, where there’s a disproportionate, large number of people who are federal employees or federal contractors, the anxiety over the future, whether you’ve lost your job already or whether you’re worried you might, will discourage consumer spending," Farnsworth told Radio IQ. "And all of those downward pressures on the Virginia economy will not help Republican candidates going forward.”
Still, the increase in early voter turnout early in the primary race could mean the pool of day-of Democratic voters would get smaller.
"Early voters would vote anyway," Farnsworth said. "If they're banking their votes, that still shows some enthusiasm."
Notably there's no statewide primaries on the GOP ballot this year, leaving only about 14,000 registered early voters in districts with primaries.
For Democrats, with a six-way race for lieutenant governor and a two-way race for Attorney General, that number is nearly 260,000.
Virginians can continue to vote early in person through Saturday, June 14 until 5PM. Mail in ballots can be sent until Primary Day on June 17th but won't be counted without a post mark on or before the 17th. Mailed in ballots must be received before Friday, June 20th.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
