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New photo ID requirement will be in effect for all Virginia voters

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virginiaVirginia voters will have an opportunity to cast a ballot at their polling place between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. today.  All voters are now required to show an acceptable form of photo identification.  Acceptable forms of photo ID include a Virginia dmv issued driver’s license, a United States passport, a student photo ID from a college or university located in Virginia, or a photo ID issued by either the United States government, the Commonwealth of Virginia, a local Virginia government or any political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Voters who do not have an acceptable photo ID are eligible for a free Virginia Voter Photo ID Card, available at their local voter registration office.  A list of all locations is available at elections.virginia.gov.  Voters may apply for one of these cards anytime throughout the year, including Election Day.  Voters will be issued a Temporary Identification Document that can be used to vote on Election Day.  To date, 2,987 voters have applied for the free Virginia Voter Photo ID Cards produced by the Department of Elections and local voter registration offices have printed 962 Temporary Identification Documents for voters’ use in this election.

Officers of Election, in all of Virginia’s polling places, are required to offer every voter without an acceptable photo ID a provisional ballot before the voter leaves the polling place.  Voters who lack acceptable photo ID and vote a provisional ballot will have until 12pm on Friday November 7 to present their voter registrar with an acceptable photo ID or to apply for a Virginia Voter Photo ID Card in the office.

This election presents all of Virginia’s 5,281,026 registered voters with an opportunity to elect or re-elect a member of the United States Senate, a total of 11 members to the United States House of Representatives, and vote on a statewide constitutional amendment question.  Regionally and locally, different voters will have a range of other offices and questions to choose from.  In total, Virginia voters will be selecting from 538 candidates running for 408 different offices.  Voters can see what is on their specific ballot, find information about their polling place, and check their registration status by visiting elections.virginia.gov or by calling (800) 552-9745.

118,218 absentee ballots have been cast either by mail or in-person for this election.  Voters who received an absentee ballot in the mail for this election must have it their voted ballot returned to their local voter registration office by7:00pm on Election Day.  In-person absentee voting concluded this past Saturday.  In Virginia, all qualified absentee ballots are counted on election night.  Unofficial results from Virginia’s 2,557 precincts will begin to be available atelections.virginia.gov shortly after the polls close at 7:00pm on November 4.

Voters can engage the Department of Elections via social media at virginiaELECT on Facebook or vaELECT on Twitter.

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