Tuesday is Election Day in many places across Virginia.
And it will be an election unlike any other.
More than 60 local elections will be happening across Virginia, everywhere from Salem and Danville to Bristol and Vienna.
Perhaps the most significant change this year is the dramatic increase in mail-in ballots. Fairfax City registrar Brenda Cabrera says the last election for City Council had about 40 mail in absentee ballots. This year, it’s more than 2,000. “I don’t even know how many times that is. That’s a lot," Cabrera says. "It’s a lot different. So it’s a whole different election, a whole different vote by mail election. We really don’t even expect that many people at the precincts.”
For those voters willing to brave the inside of a polling precinct, they’ll find a host of new protective measures.
Galax registrar Stacey Reavis says election workers there are using clear-plastic shower curtains as a buffer and photo IDs will be placed on legal pads instead of handed back and forth. “It’ll be a little bit hard to have a six-foot distance at that particular table, so we’re going to have that screen there as a little bit of a barrier But we can still see and hear everything that we need to hear, and with that little open area underneath we can still slide that photo ID on that paper pad back and forth.”
Click here for ballots and polling places from the Virginia Dept. of Elections.
For those absentee ballots to count, election officials will need to receive them by 7 pm on Election Day, when polls close. That could mean that voters drop them off in person at a polling place or the registrar’s office.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
