Heavily Democrat Northern Virginia has seen a huge increase in early voting. In Loudoun County, it is expected that 40,000 will vote early. In 2016 it was less than 30,000. About 1,000 people are voting every day in Loudoun. An unheard of turnout of over 90% of registered voters is expected in Loudoun this year.
As of last Tuesday in Falls Church, 33% of registered voters had already cast ballots. Four years ago 18 absentee ballots had been requested by the first day of early voting. This year that number was 3,300. In Fairfax city more than 200,000 absentee ballots have been mailed, more than the total for 2016. In Arlington County 5 times as many absentee ballots have been requested compared to 2016.
VPAP.org has an interesting map of the potential absentee ballots in Virginia by precinct. Democrat areas have many more requests for absentee ballots than Republican areas.
Nationwide 80 million voters are expected to vote early, twice the number who did so in 2016. Across the country, more Republicans intend to vote on Election Day rather than vote early. For Democrats, it’s reversed. Democrats tend to be more afraid of COVID-19 so it makes sense that they would fear going to the polls more than Republicans.
Turnout in Virginia in previous years, from VPAP.org,
More on the story here.
Deadline to register to vote in November is tomorrow, October 13th.