Early voting in Virginia continues to surge despite worries over coronavirus, mail-in ballots
A large portion of ballots will already have been cast in Virginia by the time Election Day rolls around next month, after a record turnout for early voting that has featured long lines outside some polling stations and mail-in ballots coming in by the thousands per day.
So far, nearly 887,000 Virginians have voted in person, by mail or by hand-delivering their ballots to a registrar’s office or drop box — the menu of options available to voters worried about going to potentially crowded polling stations on Nov. 3 and risking exposure to the novel coronavirus.
The number of ballots already cast is approaching a quarter of the 3.75 million counted for the entire 2016 general election.
Early voting is surging here despite conventional political wisdom that Virginia — a critical battleground in the last three presidential cycles — is not in play in the contest between President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden.
Voters from both parties have expressed fears about the virus and election security, the latter stoked by upheaval at the U.S. Postal Service and comments Trump has made, without evidence, about potential voting fraud.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/early-voting-virginia-continues-surge/2020/10/09/5d441f9e-0969-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html
