Early bird voting surges
Thousands in the Historic Triangle have already voted
York County resident Rebecca Capehart-Freire rarely misses an opportunity to vote and have her voice heard in a presidential election. The 36-year-old said the one time she recalled missing such an opportunity in recent years was when she had to work long hours at her job that Election Day.
But on Friday, Capehart-Freire joined hundreds of Historic Triangle residents who have been voting on average each weekday since absentee voting in Virginia began Sept. 18.
“I hope we have a higher turnout rate,” Capehart-Freire said outside the York County Registrar Office in the Washington Square Shopping Center on Friday. “Not because this is such a controversial election, but because early voting was made available for so many people.”
The last day to register to vote for the Nov. 3 presidential election is Oct. 13, and the last day to request an absentee ballot by mail is Oct. 23. Early voting locations in Williamsburg, James City and York counties are open weekdays and will also be open on the two Saturdays before Election Day on Nov. 3, Oct. 24 and 31.
Capehart-Freire said she’s voting for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris to help protect women’s rights.
In Williamsburg, 68-year-old Larry Morning drove to the Municipal Building on Lafayette Street Friday afternoon to cast his vote for the Democratic Party, using the Registrar Office’s curbside voting service.
“I just want to change the way things are going, because I feel like the United States isn’t going in the right direction right now,” Morning, 68, said at the Municipal Building. “We’re dying, and we need strong leadership.”
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many voters are finding their locality’s early voting options to be more efficient and safer than waiting for Election Day, and voting in person is also helping to address their concerns about mail-in voting.
James City County resident Mary Ann Tegenborg, 58, and her daughter Elisebeth Tegenborg, 22, said they voted for Biden on Friday at the early voting office at the James City County Recreation Center on Longhill Road. The Tegenborgs were concerned about the mail, which is why they chose to vote in person, and they said it only took five to 10 minutes.
“It was amazing, (and) they gave us very clear instructions,” Elisebeth Tegenborg said about the James City County election officers.
James City County resident Debby Keller, 73, also chose to vote because she was concerned about her ballot getting lost in the mail, and she wanted to make sure that her vote was counted. She also praised the voting process at the Rec Center as being efficient and safe.
“This was a great experience. Couldn’t have been safer,” Keller said.
There are 61,000 registered voters in James City County as of Monday, according to James City County Director of Elections Dianna Moorman. That’s 6,000 more voters registered than the 54,000 in 2016.
The James City County Office of Elections has issued a little more than 16,000 ballots for the presidential elections, including more than 12,000 requests to vote absentee by mail, Moorman said.
About 2,000 of the voters that initially requested to vote absentee have come to the vote center to vote in-person, instead.
Since Sept. 18, James City County has averaged 800 voters each day at the James City County Rec Center since, according to Chief Election Officer Mary Bull.
“We’ve never had a moment when there were no voters in the voting office,” Bull said Friday.
Residents that choose to vote early in-person simply walk up to one of the check-in stations with a valid form of ID to receive a ballot. They then mark their ballots with a disposable pen that they keep and deposit their freshly marked ballots into the counting machine. Election officers and voters are separated by plastic shields at the check-in stations, and election officers wear masks and sanitize the voting booths between uses.
Voters are required to social distance inside the Rec Center, and they are also encouraged to wear masks, Moorman said. Curbside voting is also available to anyone 65 or older, who has a disability or is concerned about going inside during the pandemic.
York County has 48,471 registered voters as of Monday morning, which includes both active and inactive voters, according to York County Director of Elections Walt Latham Jr., with 898 registering between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1.