Early voting ends with a bang in Virginia as Election Day nears

Early voting surged in its final days in Virginia as all eyes – including those of federal civil rights attorneys – turn to Election Day tomorrow.

Early voting ended Saturday, Nov. 2, with a surge of voters as officials gear up for Election Day in Virginia where federal monitors will be on hand to ensure compliance with voting laws. 

Nearly 140,000 people cast their ballots on the final day of early voting in Virginia, bringing the total number of ballots cast to roughly 2.2 million ahead of Election Day, according to VPAP. This year’s number of ballots cast early trails the 2020 total of 2.8 million as of November 3 that year when there was a pandemic. 

Both parties have spun the early voting trends as better for their candidates and are projecting confidence ahead of Election Day when the close presidential race will be decided.

“Late-deciding voters are breaking toward Vice President Harris by double digits, especially among independent women and seniors who are done with Trump,” said Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia in a statement. “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will resoundingly win Virginia’s 13 electoral votes.”

Democrats arguably have more grounds to be confident about Harris’ chances in Virginia. The vice president is up by 10 points in Virginia, according to a Nov. 1 Roanoke College poll. 

“Democrats continue to take advantage of early voting,” said Dr. Harry Wilson, senior political analyst for IPOR and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Roanoke College. “Republicans are catching up, but they need massive turnout on Election Day.” 

Despite Harris’ commanding lead and momentum in Virginia, Trump rallied in Salem over the weekend. He offered up his standard mix of far-right lies, insults, and increasingly bizarre comments. Trump did impressions of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, called Elon Musk’s mother beautiful, and remarked on his “beautiful white skin.” 

Here’s Trump speaking in Virginia about his “beautiful white skin” pic.twitter.com/jnv2hGHNif

— Michael O’Connor (@oconnor_reports) November 2, 2024

While there are signs early voting was helpful to Democrats, all the months of campaigning and knocking on doors comes down to tomorrow in Virginia. 

“The late-breaking, low-propensity voters are probably going to decide the election and the campaigns’ respective ground games will be key to getting them out to vote,” said Marty Cohen, a James Madison University political science professor.

Voting rights

As Trump has led the movement to cast doubt on America’s elections, federal officials are deploying across the country to ensure voting rights are protected. 

The US Department of Justice announced on Friday plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 27 states, which is common for elections to ensure local officials are complying with federal voting laws around things like translations and accessibility. 

“In every major election,(the Department of Justice) is out and about monitoring in jurisdictions around the country,” said John Powers of the racial justice group Advancement Project.  

Virginia is among the states Department of Justice civil rights division staff will be monitoring, with specific attention on six localities: Hanover, Henrico, Loudoun and Prince William counties; and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. 

However routine the monitoring is, it comes as Virginia voting rights have been in the national spotlight. Last week, the US Supreme Court intervened to allow Virginia’s voter purges to continue after a lower court found them illegal. And in the western part of the state, Republican election officials are using a lawsuit to peddle conspiracy theories about the reliability of electronic vote counting machines. 

Such an environment suggests federal officials are right to keep closer tabs on Virginia come election day, according to the ACLU of Virginia. 

“Although the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been sending monitors to polling places on Election Day since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it hasn’t deployed so many since the aftermath of the uncertainty of the 2000 election, in 2004,” said ACLU of Virginia Legal Director Eden Heilman in a statement. “In this year’s environment of partisan meddling and voter suppression efforts, including here in the Commonwealth, an increase in DOJ monitors appears warranted.”