This year, Virginia is seeing a record number of votes cast before election day. And that’s going to change everything about what we once called, “Election Night.”
You know these are unusual times when you see more people voting early than at any time in history. Virginia is one of the states that will count those votes as soon as they come in, but on election DAY, November 3rd, the in-person votes will actually be counted first.
“And so those vote counts that you'll see appearing on the news on Tuesday night will likely reflect in-person votes from most areas in Virginia, before they add in the mail and absentee ballots,” says Virginia Tech political scientist Caitlin Jewitt. "Because of the number of voters that have cast early votes or mail in ballots, it's going to take longer to count those mail-in ballots”
And that could bring great change to the usual quadrennial election night festivities, -- that breathless barrage of updates, who’s up and who’s down, like it’s a football game. And so, this time around, Jewitt says, it’s important that people realize this election already looks very different from our presidential elections in the past. And that means this election’s aftermath is also likely to look very different as well.
The unprecedented number of people voting early this year might be something voters would like to continue, even after the pandemic.
“In many ways, It's great. "She says. It allows voters, more opportunities to participate. You don't have to worry about coming to the polls, in the span of 12 hours on a Tuesday in November, you can do so at your convenience.”
“The pandemic is encouraging states to sort of open up their voting process and give voters different ways to cast their ballots, which we are seeing in turn-out numbers so far.”
Professor Jewitt says it may result in increased political participation in future elections.
