Despite President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate mail-in voting, it will still be available in Virginia, and elsewhere, in November’s election.
The Virginia Department of Elections will open early, in-person voting for the state in approximately three weeks, beginning on Friday, Sept. 19. In-person voting runs through Saturday, Nov. 1.
The November ballot includes the opportunity to vote for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and member of the Virginia House of Delegates. All 100 delegate seats are up for election to serve a two-year term, and Democrats have candidates running in all 100 districts.
Nearly 30 percent of Americans cast their ballot by mail in the 2024 presidential election, with a large number of mail-in votes coming after a multimillion-dollar push by, you guessed it, the Republican Party, to vote by mail. Senior citizens, college students and members of the U.S. military are among the demographics most likely to utilize mail-in ballots.
Trump, who doesn’t have the power to change state election laws, has argued that states “must do what the president tells them” related to counting and tabulating votes.
“He can’t just decree that we don’t have mail-in balloting anymore. The Constitution says that each state gets to set its own rules for running elections,” legal scholar Rick Hasen, with UCLA, said in an interview with PBS. “That diversity of how elections are run, it makes for some confusion sometimes, but it can be a strength against an executive that’s trying to impose its will, as we see the president trying to do here.”
The mail-in voting issue came to a head after Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump says, supported his claim that the 2020 election was rigged.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is the only country in the world that uses mail-in ballots, although 34 countries allow for mail-in or postal voting.
No changes for mail-in voting in November
In Waynesboro, Va., voting will go on as it always has in the general election on Nov. 4, and in advance, with in-person and mail-in voting.
A public notice was posted online today by General Registrar Lisa Jeffers giving residents the available location, dates and hours for in-person voting along with sample ballots for each ward. In addition to state and House races, local candidates are also on the ballot, including uncontested races for sheriff, commonwealth’s attorney, commissioner of the revenue and treasurer.
The Virginia Department of Elections is also operating with business as usual.
According to its website, residents may request a mail-in ballot with their local registrar through Friday, Oct. 24 at 5 p.m. Absentee ballots may also be requested online.
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Crystal Graham
