VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Jeff Marks, the chairman of the Virginia Beach Electoral Board, expects this year's Election Day to be a far more subdued experience than years past.
“The numbers are the same as last year. The question now is: Is last year’s [state] election bigger than this?" Marks said.
A day ahead of the closely-watched midterm elections, more than 900,000 people across the Commonwealth have already cast a ballot either early in person or absentee.
Those numbers are comparable to what the state saw for early voting in 2021 for the gubernatorial race when Gov. Glenn Youngkin defeated former Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
In Virginia Beach, the largest city within the closely-watched Virginia's 2nd U.S. House District race between Rep. Elaine Luria and Republican challenger Jen Kiggans, more than 53,000 people have already cast their ballot.
Based on the city's registered voter pool, that's already roughly one of every six registered voters. And if vote totals mimic what they did for the 2021 general election, it would be roughly one-third of the votes for the election are already accounted for.
“My impression now is that it’s a 50/50 proposition. You have just as many Republicans voting early as there are Democrats," Marks said. “You have more Republicans voting early than in 2020."
According to Marks, the city has seen roughly 100 people utilize a provisional ballot in the new same-day voter registration system for Virginia.