Early voting helped Virginian Republicans in November, now they seek to limit its length

Early voting helped Virginia Republicans to avoid significant losses in November, yet legislation authored by conservative lawmakers to reduce the amount of time allowed for early voting are among the dozens of bills filed ahead of the 2024 Legislative session.

“We lost by the skin of our teeth, it was excruciatingly close,” Rich Anderson, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party said to a room full of party representatives from across the state.

Members of the Virginia GOP had gathered at a hotel in downtown Richmond for a state-central committee meeting in early December to discuss the recent November 2023 elections, when Democrats gained control of both Legislative chambers by a slim margin.

“We significantly over performed,” he said, and noted that the Virginia GOP’s new early voting initiative, “Secure Your Vote Virginia,” played a significant role in helping Republicans to avoid a political slaughter on election day.

Yet, less than a month later, two Republican legislators had introduced bills to be considered during the 2024 session that would cut the time allowed for early voting nearly in half.

Early voting about-face

“It moved the needle, it cut our losses, it was a major contributing factor to this razor-thin Democrat win,” Anderson said.

Nearly 22% of Republican voters in the off-year election cast their ballot through early voting, virtually neck-and-neck with Democrats who saw nearly 23% of voters cast their ballot early. Democrats in Virginia, along with the Democratic National Committee, have long championed early voting methods.

Republicans plan to leverage “Secure Your Vote, Virginia” as well as the Republican National Committee’s nationwide early voting effort, “Bank Your Vote,” for the 2024 election, Anderson said in early December.

The abrupt about-face among conservative leaders has come after years of derision and allegations of “ballot harvesting” by the Republican Party toward early, absentee and mail-in voting.

“What is really at issue here is how early should early be? I don’t know what the correct answer for that is,” Anderson said in an interview with USA Today at the start of January. “I do believe 45 days is excessive.”

Legislation to scale back early voting

In another about-face, two bills, filed by Republicans in the House of Delegates and Senate ahead of the 2024 legislative session, would change the amount time allowed for early voting. As it stands, early voting starts in Virginia 45 days before election day. A bill filed in the Senate on Dec. 18 by Sen. Mark Peake (R – Lynchburg), would decrease early voting time to 21 days before election day and a separate bill, filed in the House on Dec. 21 by Del. Chad Green (R – Hampton Roads) would limit early voting to 30 days.

"In our last election cycle, Governor Youngkin and the Republicans spent millions of dollars encouraging their supporters to vote early just to turn around now and try to limit access to early voting,” Del. Marcia Price (D – Newport News), the incoming chair of the House Privileges and Elections Committee, said. “These introduced bills just show that they don’t even have the decency to be embarrassed by their hypocrisy.”

Peake argued that he wrote his legislation to support registrars and elections workers. He noted that approximately two-thirds of early voters in Virginia cast their ballot in the last two weeks before election day, according to data provided by the Virginia Public Access Project.

“To have our poor registrars and workers out there for 45 days, it’s just unnecessary. A hundred and thirty-five days of voting in 2024,” he said – referring to the total number of days slated for early voting ahead of this year’s three elections – and called allegations that his bill would suppress voters ridiculous.

“If they can’t get out to the polls three weeks before election day, are we really suppressing it?”

Registrar’s perspective

Christi Linhoss, registrar for Staunton, said that allocating resources for 45 days of early voting during each election can be difficult.

“As a small locality with only myself and a part-time deputy registrar on staff, I would say, yes, the 45 days of Early Voting has a financial strain on the office,” she said.

Linhoss hires two additional part-time staff members to support early voting in a city with a population of roughly 25,600 people. That equals roughly 530 hours of additional part-time help and the financial burden to staff the office for those 45 days is the responsibility of the locality, she said.

“It puts a strain on the budget to fund other aspects of the office,” she said. “Personally, I certainly don’t mind the extra work, it’s my job to ensure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast a ballot. However, from a purely financial standpoint, it’s tough.”

Dawn Wilmoth, registrar for Petersburg, agreed with Linhoss. Petersburg has a population of roughly 33,400, and with 3 elections this year, Wilmoth anticipates that planning for each contest and its allotted 45 days of early voting could be stressful.

And staffing for the full 45 days can be hit or miss, she said, as the number of voters vary throughout the early voting period: The first day of early voting is often busy, followed by weeks of lulls before a steady stream of voters make it into the office in the remaining two weeks before polls close.

“I know not all of my colleagues will agree in reducing the 45 days and their numbers may speak differently to them in daily turnout,” she said. “Every election is different and this is what makes that 45 days hard to plan for.”

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Legislation to limit early voting on the docket for the 2024 session