I’ve written before about a section of my local newspaper called The Last Word, where readers submit anonymous questions or comments that are printed in the newspaper. Every week, the comments focus on a variety of common complaints – traffic or parking or taxes – but sometimes items like the one at the top of this essay catch my eye.
The national news media have been all over the “race” for the party nominations for President for the past year or so, with actual events happening in Iowa (January 15), New Hampshire (January 23), and Nevada (2/6 or 2/8 depending on who you ask). South Carolina’s GOP primary is coming up on February 24.
What you may not realize is that voting is happening in other states as well. It is remarkably difficult to find information about what is actually going on from state to state. Charts like the one below don’t help very much, although it looks pretty helpful at first glance.
Here’s the problem: although this chart states clearly that the Virginia Presidential primary will be held on March 5 (Super Tuesday – lots of states are holding their primary elections on this date), early voting in Virginia actually began three weeks ago, on January 19. When the Democrats had a governing “trifecta” in the state two years ago, they passed a number of pieces of legislation that made it easier to vote in Virginia. One of these bills established 45 days of early voting before every election – one of the longest early voting periods among the states. Only Minnesota offers longer early voting – it offers 46 days. Vermont and New Jersey also offer 45 days of early voting.
I have been an election worker since 2020, and I worked an early voting shift last Friday afternoon. It was a slow day, although my precinct chief said that our country is on about the same pace as other counties in Virginia. The people who came in to vote obviously knew that early voting was available, but they commented that most of their friends and neighbors seemed unaware of this. The big events in other states make it seem like those states are the only place where things are happening, but that’s not the case. I’m also scheduled to work on Election Day itself, March 5. My shift will be from the time the polls open (6 AM) until they close (7 PM). We’ll arrive about an hour before the polls open and leave probably an hour after the polls close. It will be a long day.
Virginia also has an election for a seat in the United States Senate this year. As you probably recall, Senate seats are elected on a staggered schedule – 1/3 of the Senate seats are up for election on every even-numbered year. This map shows the 34 Senate seats open in 2024.
The primary election for this race is scheduled for June 18, so early voting will begin on May 3 – 45 days before election day. I expect I’ll work a couple of these early voting days along with the general election day, June 18.
If you live in Virginia, you can vote in a primary election today if you have a few minutes. In Virginia, voters don’t register by political party. That’s true for 19 other states, although in 31 states (plus the District of Columbia), voters indicate a party affiliation when they register to vote. By necessity, Virginia holds what’s called an “open” primary – any voter can vote in either party’s primary election. When someone comes in to vote, after election officers verify a voter’s identity, they ask “Would you like the Republican or Democratic Party ballot today?” Voters often don’t understand why they have to answer this question – they like the idea of their voting preferences being a private matter. But there is no other way to provide voters with the ballot they want – and they can only vote in one party’s primary.
Sometimes voters play games with this – for example, since there is no real competition for President Biden in the primary contest, voters can choose to vote in the Republic Primary even though they plan to vote for President Biden in November. I don’t know if any of the voters I helped last week were playing some kind of game like this – we intentionally don’t engage in any political discussion as we’re working with voters – but I have read that voters sometimes cross party lines to sabotage the other party’s primary – voting for the worst candidate the other side has to offer to make it easier for their preferred candidate to win in the general election.
If you live someplace other than Virginia, you’ll have to check with your Board of Elections to find out when your early voting begins and to figure out what your options will be. Some states that register by party have what’s called a “closed” primary, in which only voters registered with that party are allowed to participate in the party primary. Other states have a variety of open or semi-open primaries, giving voters who are registered as Independents, for example, an opportunity to vote in one of the party primaries. Some states even allow voters to temporarily change their registration on election day in order to vote in the primary, and then give them the opportunity to change their registration back before they even leave the polling site.
People often complain because they don’t like their candidate choices in the general election in November. But turnout in the primary elections is often very low – less than ¼ of turnout in the general elections – and even fewer voters work with their local party organizations to recruit or support potential candidates in the years between elections so that their options are better when elections come around.
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
My husband "crossed over" years ago to vote against Eric Cantor. (He was our delegate and we felt that when he moved into party leadership, he quit paying any attention to our local interests.) Anyway, he thought "who in the world would vote for that Brat guy>" and thought it would be an easy Dem pickup district. That didn't work out so well, did it? One should consider that before crossing over. Not saying I'm against it, just that actions have consequences ... and sometimes they are unforeseeable at the time. Glad you continue to keep your readers aware of what's going on at the local level.