VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The deadline to request an absentee ballot was last Friday, but voters can still request a mail-in ballot on the Virginia Department of Elections website.
Why? When a voter applies for an absentee ballot now, they're applying for future elections, not this November's presidential election.
“The law requires that anyone who wants to apply for an absentee ballot up to a year in advance has that opportunity," said Christopher Piper, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections.
Piper said the Virginia Department of Elections is now notifying voters who apply for an absentee ballot after the deadline, telling them they'll need to vote in-person to have their vote counted in this election cycle.
At the local level, election officials said thousands of people are voting in person after receiving an absentee ballot.
This means workers are voiding any duplicate ballots.
Virginia Beach officials report voiding more than 7,000 ballots so far, preventing anyone from double voting.
“Well it’s real simple, our database makes it very, very clear that once a ballot has been received, another ballot from that voter cannot be received and counted," Piper said. "There are many, many protections that we put in place to prevent double voting and it’s just not possible here.”
Piper said most of Virginia’s election results should be posted after 11 p.m. on Election Night.
In North Carolina, more than half of all registered voters have cast their ballots early. The Tar Heel State passed that mark on Wednesday, with more than 3.6 million people voting so far.
Where to vote early, drop off absentee ballots, in Hampton Roads
