Going into the last hours of voting, election officials are optimistic that high early voting numbers mean smooth voting for those planning to still cast their votes today.
2.75 million Virginians already cast their votes early. That’s 69% of 2016’s total turnout.
1.8 million early ballots were cast in person and 956,000 by mail. That amounts to 46% of Virginia’s 5.9 million registered voters and almost all of those ballots have been pre-processed, said Election Commissioner Chris Piper. "We had about 300,000 ballots that still needed to be pre-processed. That is roughly about the same number that we had in 2016 on Election Day," Piper said during an 11am briefing.
There are still about 200,000 mail-in absentee ballots that have not been received or surrendered, Piper said. In 2016 3.5 million people voted on Election Day. Early voting has meant there are fewer voters that will need to vote in person Tuesday. "There aren't 3.5 million registered voters left to vote," Piper noted. "As a result those who are wishing to vote today can move through quickly to cast their ballots."
Piper said that while there have been minor issues, voting has not been interrupted as of the 11am briefing.
A Quiet Morning at Many Precincts
In Charlottesville, 5,491 people had voted in-person by 4pm. That's about 17% of the city's registered voters, according to the city elections office. In 2012 and 2016, about 58% of voters had turned out in the same time period. But this year, at least 31% of the city's registered voters cast an early ballot. And still more voted by mail.
Albemarle County reported a similarly quiet morning of in-person voting. By 1pm, about 19% of registered voters had cast a ballot in-person. In 2016, about 47% had done so by 1pm.
In Alexandria, just 8% of voters had cast an in-person ballot by 10am, according to the city's elections office. When early and mail-in voters were factored in, though, overall turnout was 70%.
Chesterfield County reported 73% total turnout by 2pm, including early, absentee and in-person votes. In 2016, the total turnout at the end of the day was about 75%.
Afternoon Update from the Virginia Department of Elections
State election officials are expecting more people to show up to their polling places across the Commonwealth before they close at 7pm. Anyone in line once the polls do close will still be allowed to cast their ballot.
The department says there have been some reports of people not wearing masks, but so far, there haven't been any widespread or major issues. There have also been no reports of efforts to intimidate voters as they head to the polls.
Department officials also don't have any concrete, in-person turnout data as of 4pm.
When polls do close, reporting of results will begin and be carried out like any other election. That is, precincts in each locality will begin reporting their results after the 7pm cutoff and everyone in line at that point has cast their ballot.