Alexandria election sees high numbers of early votes while in-person voters trickle in

Counting both in-person and absentee ballots, a little under half of those registered to vote in Alexandria have shown up to the polls as of noon today (Nov. 2).

This year, Alexandria voters are voting for a slew of competitive state and local races, including:

• Governor
• Lt. Governor
• Attorney General
• House of Delegate (45 District)
• Mayor
• City Council
• School Board
• Sheriff
• Commonwealth’s Attorney

There are also elections for the 45 District Delegate seat, Commonwealth Attorney, and Sheriff, but in the first two races the incumbents are running unopposed and Sean Casey is running unopposed for Sheriff.

According to city records, there were 24,207 absentee votes filed before election day, or around 25% of the 96,302 active registered voters in Alexandria. As of noon, there were 16,517 people who voted in-person on election day.

Together, that’s 42.3% total voter turnout. The last gubernatorial election was in 2017, where there was roughly 57.9% total voter turnout.

“As of this morning, we’ve had about 24,000 voters who’ve already either voted in person absentee or whoever returned by mail ballot, and about 16,000 of those are individuals who have voted in-person and the 45 days we were open for early voting,” said Alexandria Registrar Angie Turner.

City Council candidate Alyia Gaskins says she slept last night, and woke up at 4:30 a.m. to vote when polls opened at 6 a.m. in Cameron Station.

“I feel good,” Gaskins said outside City Hall. “I’ve been out bouncing around and I see a lot of my fellow Democratic candidates out having fun meeting good people despite the rain, and this is the eighth precinct I’ve visited.”

Several candidates posted photos of themselves hopping from polling station to polling station today to talk to voters.

It’s good when people know your name! Here at William Ramsey with @RedRenaissance_ . These guys got me covered from all angles ♥️@AlexGazette @AlexTimesNews @GOPAlex pic.twitter.com/30oarvr1G3

— Annetta Catchings for Mayor of Alexandria (@annetta_of) November 2, 2021

Across Duke Street talking to voters at Tucker precinct! pic.twitter.com/zIfbAk3NCh

— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) November 2, 2021

Polls close today at 7 p.m., and anyone in line at that point will be able to vote.

James Cullum and Vernon Miles contributed to this story