Update: Early voting passes 1.3M mark with two weeks to go to Election Day

Nearly a quarter of the state’s registered voters have voted in person or by mail, more than doubling already the number of absentee votes cast in the 2016 election.

The total early vote tally stands at 1,359,123, from figures compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, and valid as of the start of business on Monday.

This represents 23.1 percent of the state’s nearly 5.9 million registered voters – the latter figure being the latest available from the Virginia Department of Elections.

The early turnout seems to be strongest in Democratic-leaning localities in Northern Virginia, Central Virginia and Hampton Roads.

More than 50,000 early votes were cast in Fairfax County since mid-week last week, bringing the total there to 179,823, 23.2 percent of the registered voter base of 775,128.

Fairfax County accounts for 13.1 percent of all of the registered voters in the Commonwealth.

And it’s heavily Democratic in its partisan leanings – going for Hillary Clinton by 36 points in the 2016 election, with her vote total in the county in 2016 comprising 17.9 percent of her total in Virginia in the cycle.

Other NoVa localities are also seeing heavy early voting – Alexandria is at 34.5 percent of its voter base already, Arlington County is at 33.6 percent, Prince William at 26.7 percent, Loudoun at 26.5 percent.

Also busy in terms of the early voting are Albemarle County and Charlottesville, which went 58.8 percent and 79.7 percent, respectively, for Clinton in 2016.

Albemarle is reporting 26,251 early votes, 32.4 percent of its 80,954 registered voter base.

Charlottesville is reporting 10,531 early votes, 30.7 percent of its 34,269 registered voter base.

Richmond, which went 78.5 percent for Clinton in 2016, is starting to pick up in terms of pre-election activity, with roughly 4,000 early votes reported since mid-week last week, to 27,618 as of the start of business on Monday, 17.8 percent of the city’s registered voter base of 155,044.

Down in Hampton Roads, Democratic strongholds Norfolk (68.4 percent for Clinton in 2016) and Newport News (60.2 percent for Clinton in 2016) are both seeing early voting at 20.7 percent of their registered voter bases.

Story by Chris Graham