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Solid turnout, lawsuits mark final weeks of Virginia election season

Solid turnout, lawsuits mark final weeks of Virginia election season

Sen. Tim Kaine stopped by a gathering of small business owners in Alexandria, Va. on Oct. 17, 2024. (Michael O'Connor/The Dogwood)

By Michael O'Connor

October 18, 2024

With hundreds of thousands of votes already cast in Virginia, the pressure is on for Democrats and Republicans to turn out the vote.

In the final weeks of Virginia’s 2024 election season, more early-voting locations have opened and a number of voting-related lawsuits have raised tensions as Election Day approaches. 

Fairfax County, a Democrat-leaning county and Virginia’s most populous, opened 13 additional in-person early voting locations on Oct. 17. In-person early voting started on Sept. 20 and runs through Nov. 2. 

Turnout for in-person early voting has been comparable to the 2020 presidential election: 665,509 in-person ballots had been cast as of Oct. 17, which is in line with the 687,125 in-person ballots cast in 2020 when there was 19 days to go before Election Day, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. 

Democrats and Republicans in Virginia have claimed the early voting trends are positive for their respective parties. Polling points to a big advantage for Vice President Kamala Harris and US Sen. Tim Kaine in their races. Things are more competitive in three congressional races that will help determine which party controls the US House. 

With thousands of votes already cast, the focus now is on getting out the vote, Kaine said in an interview with The Dogwood. 

“The message is: if you wait till the last minute, you might have a flat tire,” Kaine said. “So why not go now and go when it’s convenient for you and the lines might not be so long.”

Lawsuits 

As voters head to the polls, it is unclear what impact two lawsuits related to voting will have on this year’s elections. 

Chief among them is the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Virginia over a state program aimed at preventing noncitizen voters from voting. The issue is whether Virginia is carrying out the program too close to Election Day and thereby risking improperly removing eligible voters who wouldn’t have enough time to get back on the rolls to vote. 

Gov. Glenn Youngkin directed the state in August to carry out the program to update the state’s voter rolls. Youngkin has since gone on a media spree defending the state program and attacking the DOJ lawsuit as politically motivated. 

“That’s my frustration with this whole process which has started 25 days before a presidential election,” said Youngkin of the DOJ lawsuit on CNN. “They could have started it a long time ago.”

As Youngkin and Republicans nationally have stoked fears about noncitizens voting, an October investigation by The Washington Post concluded there was zero evidence that any noncitizens have tried to vote during Youngkin’s time in office. 

Kaine said everyone can agree that noncitizens should not be voting, but he added that there isn’t any evidence that they are and eligible voters should not be wrongfully kicked off the voter rolls so close to Election Day. 

“Non-citizens should not vote,” Kaine said. “Federal law doesn’t allow it. Virginia law doesn’t allow it. But you’re also not supposed to remove mass groups of voters from the rolls 90 days before an election.”

The other lawsuit raising eyebrows across Virginia is further afield such procedural matters and more rooted in outright conspiracy theories. 

Members of Waynesboro’s board of elections filed a lawsuit this month saying they would not certify the election unless changes were made to the voting systems. In an echo of the false claims about the 2020 election, the lawsuit is based on the idea that somehow electronic voting counting is not to be trusted. 

“That’s not really a serious thing, but some people have bought into it and it sounds like these folks have bought into it, too,” Henry Chambers, a professor for constitutional law at the University of Richmond School of Law, told the Virginia Mercury. 

 

  • Michael O'Connor

    Michael is an award-winning journalist who has been covering Virginia news since 2013 with reporting stints at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia Business, and Richmond BizSense. A graduate of William & Mary and Northern Virginia Community College, he also covered financial news for S&P Global Market Intelligence.

CATEGORIES: Election 2024

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