In one month, Virginians will head to the polls to elect all 140 members of the House of Delegates and state Senate. But according to a recent Christopher Newport University survey, only 34% of voters say they have followed news about the General Assembly candidates—even though partisan control of the closely divided Senate is at stake. Although some of the seats are fiercely contested, a lack of competition throughout the state may be part of the problem.
The poll projects a low voter turnout of about 26%. State Elections Commissioner EdgardoCortés says that has been the trend for off-off-year elections.
“Unfortunately, our lowest turnout year will be this year, which is when we have General Assembly and local races, but no statewide races on the ballot. So those tend to be the lowest turnout years, which is really unfortunate because a lot of the people that are being elected this year are really some of the elected officials that have the most impact on Virginians’ daily lives. So we’re hopeful we can get the word out and remind people there’s an election coming up and get them to vote.”
One contributor to voter apathy may be the number of unopposed incumbents: 57 in the 100-member House and 17 in the 40-member Senate. But Cortés adds that Democrats and Republicans are squaring off in most of the other districts.
“We have roughly a third of the House where you have both major parties running candidates in the race. And in the Senate, it’s about half the Senate that has both major parties participating.”
Twenty-three third-party candidates are also vying for seats. But there are competitive races in most localities—for such offices as school boards, constitutional officers, and boards of supervisors.
Cortés says voters can find the names of ALL of the state and local candidates who are on their ballots here. Most of the listed names also have links to the candidates’ own websites.
