Since the start of early voting on September 18, 482,674 Virginians have already cast their ballots for the rapidly-approaching November general election.
Of the almost half a million votes, 285,805 were in-person and 196,869 were through the mail, according to the Virginia Public Access Project’s (VPAP) early voting daily dashboard.
As of Wednesday, there have been 1,286,314 early ballots cast and absentee ballot requests compared to just 538,410 total absentee ballots during the 2016 election, according to VPAP.
A day-by-day timeline of early voting, broken down between mail and in-person, shows that more Virginians are actually voting in-person opposed to by mail. From September 18 to September 30, there were only two days where mail-in voting topped the in-person totals, according to the dashboard.
VPAP’s daily dashboard also shows the shift in early voting within Virginia’s 11 congressional districts from 2016 to 2020. Every single district has seen an increase in votes of at least 38 thousand.
Specifically, Virginia’s 7th congressional district, which encompasses 10 counties, has seen the largest shift so far with plus 87,865 votes. Virginia’s 8th Congressional District has seen the second largest shift with plus 84,464 votes, while the 9th District has seen the smallest shift with plus 38,581 votes, according to the dashboard.
Those 2020 numbers increase includes mail and in-person cast so far as well as outstanding mail ballot applications.
“We’re glad so many people are voting,” John March, communications director for the Republican Party of Virginia, told The Virginia Star. “We want as many people as possible to exercise their right as a Virginian and vote.”
The Star reached out to the Democratic Party of Virginia for comment on the early voting numbers but did not get a response before press time.
The voting dashboard also allows users to search for specific cities and counties’ early voting data.
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Jacob Taylor is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Follow Jacob on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mail-in Ballot” by Cindy Shebley. CC BY 2.0
