Fairfax County reports huge turnout for early voting
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| Voters lined up at the Mason Government Center. |
UPDATED, Oct. 27, 9:30 p.m.: As shown by the long lines at early voting sites, turnout in Fairfax County for the upcoming election on Nov. 3 is extremely high.
As of Oct. 24, 283,252 votes were already cast, says Fairfax County spokesperson Brian Worthy. That includes in-person early voting, mailed ballots, and ballots deposited in dropboxes.
So far, the number of votes already cast is more than 2.5 times the total number of absentee votes cast in the county in 2016 and about 50 percent of the total votes cast in 2016, Worthy said. There are 779,000 registered voters in Fairfax County.
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| The scene at the Mason Government Center. |
Fairfax County announced it’s extending early voting hours on Thursday, Oct. 29, and Friday, Oct. 30. The polls will open at 11 a.m. instead of 1 p.m.
Voters waited about an hour at the Mason District Government Center on Monday afternoon.
“Exercising your right to vote is so important,” said Chloe Massey who voted at the Mason Government Center. “I’m feeling a little more anxious this election.”
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| The dropbox at the Mason Government Center. |
“I want to make sure my vote counts,” said Sandy, as she dropped off an absentee ballot in the drop box at the Mason Government Center. Tanwir took advantage of the curbside voting for seniors and people with disabilities. This was the first time he voted early. “This election is too important. I don’t want to miss it,” he said.
Worthy reminds voters to make sure they fill in their absentee ballot correctly. Voters must fill in all the highlighted information and put the ballot inside the envelope. People who messed up will be contacted and given a chance to fix their ballot but only if the ballot is received before Oct. 31.
Voters who received an absentee ballot in the mail can either mail it back or put it in a dropbox. There are dropboxes at all the early voting locations. On Election Day, there will be dropboxes at all the regular precinct polling places. The polls will be open 6 a.m.-7 p.m. on Nov. 3.
If people receive a ballot in the mail and change their minds and want to vote in person, they must bring their ballot to a polling place.
Anyone voting in person is encouraged to wear a mask. However, there is no rule banning voters without masks.
According to Worthy, there haven’t been any recent incidents of voter suppression or intimidation in Fairfax County. However, when early voting started at the Fairfax County Government Center, there were complaints about loud Trump supporters harassing voters.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring issued an advisory opinion Sept. 24 outlining protections in state and federal law against voter intimidation and harassment.
“Intimidating a voter in Virginia is a criminal offense,” Herring states.
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| Voters are encouraged to wear face masks. |
Under the Code of Virginia, it is a Class 1 misdemeanor to “hinder, intimidate, or interfere with any qualified voter so as to prevent the voter from casting a secret ballot.” Another section of the code says it’s a Class 5 felony to “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, intimidate, prevent, or hinder any citizen” from voting.
In addition, Herring notes, it’s a criminal offense to brandish a firearm in a public place and to impersonate law enforcement. That provision means heavily armed militia members cannot intimidate voters.
Under federal law, anyone who interferes with someone’s attempt to vote could be fined and/or imprisoned for up to one year, he says.
Voters can report complaints of voter intimidation online to the Virginia Department of Elections here or call 800-552-9745.
2 responses to “Fairfax County reports huge turnout for early voting”
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I was in line that day. Very well organized. It took about 1 1/2 hours for the whole voting process.
Only problem is that they only had Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish ballots. What about the other languages?!