Same-day registration is a popular choice for college students, who are now able to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day.
Starting in 2022, college students across Virginia had an appealing new option for voting. They could walk into a registrar's office, register to vote and cast a ballot before walking out the door. That ballot is considered provisional until the registration is confirmed, and college students can do same-day voting all the way up until the polls close on November 3rd.
Chris Piper is an elections expert who says college towns have seen an influx of this kind of early voting.
"We definitely saw in 2023, 2024, and even last year in 25, students showing up, particularly at William and Mary, but in all college towns, you see a spike in the overall turnout of same-day registrations where there is a college town," Piper says.
Jennifer Victor is a political science professor at George Mason University, which is working with the League of Women Voters to get college students to the polls next weekend.
"Saturday, October 24th, is National Early Vote Day," Victor says. "And so we are going to try to organize to have a bus that will, for a few hours, take students from campus over to the Fairfax County Government Center so that students can do early vote if they want to."
College towns may end up playing a pivotal role in battleground congressional districts across Virginia. The University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary are both located in seats the Democrats are targeting to flip from red to blue.
