Gov. Ralph Northam moves the May elections to May 19th during the COVID-19 briefing on Friday, April 24, 2020, at the Patrick Henry Building in Richmond Va. Video edited by Alexa Welch Edlund/Times-Dispatch
Requests for absentee ballots by mail are surging amid COVID-19 in some parts of the state, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
In Northern Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, represented by Democrat Don Beyer, applications for absentee ballots already have surpassed 2016 totals.
A total of 45,947 people in that Democratic stronghold already have requested absentee ballots by mail, compared with 35,848 in 2016.
Since the law changed July 1, Virginians are no longer required to submit a state-approved reason in order to vote absentee by mail or in person ahead of an election.
Starting 45 days before the November election, Virginians can vote in person at their local registrar’s office. Voters also can request ballots by mail. Ballots will be sent to voters in mid-September. Voters who are interested in an absentee mail-in ballot can apply at vote.elections.virginia.gov.
People are also reading…
In the 7th District, where Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, is challenging Democratic incumbent Abigail Spanberger, 22,000 people have already requested an absentee ballot by mail. That compares with 24,289 for all of 2016, according to VPAP.
In the Virginia Beach-based district where Rep. Elaine Luria, D-2nd, faces Republican Scott Taylor in another marquee match-up, 20,046 have requested absentee ballots by mail, compared with 21,898 for all of 2016.
Five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah — conduct elections entirely by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. It says that in two-thirds of the states, any qualified voter can cast an absentee ballot without providing an excuse.
President Donald Trump asserted over the weekend that mail-in voting would be “a catastrophe.” Virginia Republicans raised concerns after an advocacy group recently sent hundreds of thousands of Virginians applications for mail-in ballots with botched return addresses.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who faces Republican challenger Daniel Gade in November, said Monday that he had written to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to raise concerns about changes that Warner said have delayed mail delivery in Virginia.
“My constituents have also raised concerns that recent delays in mail delivery are part of the administration’s broader effort to erode the effectiveness of, and confidence in, voting by mail,” Warner wrote to DeJoy.
Ellen Weintraub, head of the Federal Election Commission, told CNN on Monday that voting by mail is safe.
But she also said there is ”a substantial chance” that the results of the presidential election and some down-ticket contests might not be resolved on Nov. 3.
“Let me just tell everybody we’re all going to need to take a deep breath and be patient this year,” Weintraub said. “There is a substantial chance we are not going to know on election night what the results are, possibly for the presidency, but maybe for many other races that are important to people.”