Early voting numbers surge in Peninsula area
Maria Taylor prefers to vote on Election Day itself, but this is an abnormal year. So the Yorktown resident decided to avoid a line at her precinct and took her 76-year-old mother to vote early Friday.
“With Covid, I don’t want her around that many people,” she said. “It is wise for her.”
She’s far from alone. As in other parts of Virginia, early voting is proving popular in less dense areas of Hampton Roads. In Taylor’s home of York County, for example, 12,146 people have voted in-person as of Friday. In the 2016 elections, 3,644 people voted early in the county, which is significantly less compared to the approximately 34.7% of early voters this year.
Other people who voted at the Registrar’s Office in Yorktown voiced it was easier and more convenient for them to go to a polling station ahead of Nov. 3.
“As soon as I heard there was a place that I could come and get my vote in, I took it,” Joe Addison, 24, said.
In Gloucester and Isle of Wight counties, more than a quarter of each county’s registered voters had cast their ballots by Friday; in both Poquoson and York, more than 30 percent have.
Bobbi Morgan, general registrar of Gloucester County, said that staff at early voting ballot locations have been prepared for the lines, making face masks available and regularly washing surfaces.
“We’ve had a constant flow of voters, with no backup,” Morgan said.
The Medical Reserve Corps of the Virginia Department of Health have also been training staff at voting locations in Gloucester on the proper health and safety practices.
Mail-in ballots have also proven to be a popular option. As of Tuesday, Gloucester County sent out a total of 7,719 absentee ballots or so.
According to the Virginia Public Access Project, there have been a total of more than 2 million early votes in the state, which includes all early ballots and mail applications so far. As of Thursday, the state has received 716,972 mail-in ballots, compared to a total of 574,872 absentee ballots during the 2016 presidential elections.
In Isle of Wight County, more than 4,500 people voted early in person at the polls and 2,576 mail-in ballots were received, making up around 25% of the registered voting population.
Director of Elections for the county Lisa Betterton said she thinks some of the reason why so many people are voting early is to avoid long lines on Election Day.
“Of course, there’s always the fear of COVID and that explains the huge surge in vote by mail and absentee requests,” Betterton wrote in an email.
There are a number of safety measures in place at polling stations in Isle of Wight, which will also be enforced come Nov. 3.
“We have also eliminated any unnecessary contact between our poll workers and the voters,” she wrote. “We have had very good feedback from the voters pertaining to their early voting experience.”
Of the 9,360 people registered voters in Poquoson, around 32% had voted early. So far, 627 mail-in ballots or so have been received.
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