NORFOLK, Va. — Election Day is less than a week away in Virginia, and the races are big this year.
Every seat in Virginia’s General Assembly is up for election, both in the House of Delegates and the Senate. Ahead of the big day, one nonprofit said they’re keeping an eye on Virginia elections to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Currently, the Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, while the Republicans control the House. November’s election could cause one or both chambers to flip party control.
The results could pose as a referendum on Gov. Glenn Youngkin for some, and serve as an early indication of how next year’s presidential election could shape up in Virginia.
Jenna Lowenstein with Informing Democracy said there's good news for voters: Virginia’s Elections are well-run.
"There’s not a ton of room for discretion. Election procedures are largely codified in detail and statute and regulation," she said.
The nonprofit is made up of election professionals, researchers and lawyers. While they do expect to see continued efforts to undermine elections, the nonprofit wants voters to feel assured.
"We want Virginia voters to feel the confidence that they can cast their ballots and they’ll be counted securely," Lowenstein said.
The group said two of their concerns ahead of this election, and future elections, surround election workers. They said high turnover is a problem and leads to less institutional knowledge.
The nonprofit is also keeping track of who they call “election deniers and subverters” that are working on Electoral Boards through this tool on their website.
"Most election officials are unvetted and they have enormous power in the process of running elections. Again, most of them, super committed to running great elections but these folks are not vetted like candidates for public office," she said. "We look at officials to understand past statements, actions, etc, about the issues that are most important to us, vote counting, election certification, but also the broader election protection issues to help asses whether there is risk involved in that person's status as a local official."
Looking at voting numbers, Virginians are taking advantage of early voting. Voter registrars across the Commonwealth seeing about 30,000 early votes per day.
In total, the state has passed the half-million early vote mark.
You have until Saturday to vote early. Election Day is November 7. If you haven’t registered to vote, you can do that the same day you cast your ballot.
It’s also important to note — this is the first election under new Virginia General Assembly district boundaries based on the 2020 U.S. Census.
So, it’s likely your legislative districts have changed since the last election. You can look up what districts you're in now online. You can also use the Department of Elections' online interactive map of voting districts and precinct boundaries.