VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Less than 70 days before the 2024 Presidential election, Virginia Beach's Voter Registration and Elections office has implemented a new texting service that allows city residents to directly receive voter information leading up to election day.
The "Mobile Connect" texting tool is an opt-in based service that allows the General Registrar to send pertinent voter and election information directly to a person's phone.
"For our department, it's a first," said Christian Logan, the city's Deputy Director of Elections.
The two ways voters can opt into the service is either online or by texting "vote" to 757868.
“People sign up and they want the information, allows us to get it out to them very quickly," Logan said.
There are currently more than 300,000 registered voters in the city, which forecasts to be the focus of a tightly contested race for Congressional District 2 between Rep. Jen Kiggans and Democratic challenger Missy Cotter Smasal.
Virginia Beach is the latest city locally to try and better connect voters to important election information. This will be the City of Portsmouth's first presidential election utilizing their TextMyGov system.
It’s unclear, Logan says, how frequently they’ll utilize the messaging service to connect with voters, but they anticipate increasing in frequency the closer they get to November 5.
Early voting in Virginia begins Friday, September 20, and lasts until the Saturday before the election.