Fredericksburg-area voter registrars are generally pleased with the number of early voters they’re seeing leading up to Nov. 5’s presidential election.
While some voters may be nervous as national news stories relate concerns about election integrity, the voting chiefs this week reported nothing but positive experiences so far.
“We are seeing brisk early voting, and we are seeing a lot of first-time voters,” said Jessica B. Atkinson, Fredericksburg’s registrar.
One first-time voter, said Atkinson, was in his 80s.
Her office anticipated having a total of 3,000 in-person early voters this election season, but the staff had already served 2,788 as of Wednesday, Atkinson said, meaning they could reach that benchmark by sometime this week.
The average has been about 100 to 150 voters per day, and the final two weeks of the campaign are the busiest, the registrar said.
“I think turnout will be good overall,” Atkinson said, though she was hesitant to put a number on the prediction.
Residents contacting the office have been asking about how the voting process works and when election officials will count early votes, she said, but she reassures them that no votes will be counted until the polls close on Election Day. In Virginia, early voting concludes Nov. 2.
Several people also have asked about election reliability, said Atkinson, as that subject has swirled for the past few years.
“There is general anxiety out there,” she said.
Atkinson said her office is also pleased to offer extended hours for early voting for the first time. On Oct. 30, the office at 601 Caroline Street, Suite 500, will stay open until 6:30 p.m. in an effort to accommodate commuters.
In Spotsylvania, registrar Kellie Acors said early voting has been good, though it’s down 13 or 14 percent on average since the most recent presidential election in 2020. A total of 17,623 county residents had voted in person as of Wednesday, Acors said, with 849 of those casting ballots at curbside locations. A total of 5,931 voters had returned ballots by mail.
“Everything is going pretty normal for us,” Acors said.
She said she thinks most voters have their minds made up, so the majority of residents asking questions have simply been seeking where to vote early. Her answer: the registrar’s satellite office at the Lee Hill 1 Building, 10300 Spotsylvania Ave, Suite 101.
However, since 2020, some voters have wanted to learn about the voting process, so Acors and her staff do have to sometimes explain their procedures to combat misinformation.
“There is a lot more of that that we have to do now,” she said.
The registrar also said she works to maintain good communication with the chairs of both major political parties in Spotsylvania.
Stafford County registrar Anna K.L. Hash said that, as of Tuesday, her staff had seen 16,270 early in-person voters as well as had 5,901 ballots turned in by mail.
Her office moved from the county government center to 124 Old Potomac Church Road, Suite 205, in April, so she said most of the questions she’s fielded this campaign season have been about that change.
She said her staff has seen several first-time voters, including college students coming home on the weekends.
Hash anticipates that turnout will be about 75 percent this year, which she said would mirror the past two presidential contests.
She said she was thankful that her office hasn’t experienced any problems — large or small — this year.
“So far everything has been smooth sailing here,” she said.
In Caroline, interim registrar Rebecca Ryan said 3,261 residents had voted early in person, and 957 ballots had been returned by mail, which makes for about 17 percent of the registered voters in the county.
She said some people do bring questions and concerns to her staff, but they’re able to relieve that election stress.
“I think they walk out feeling more comfortable,” Ryan said.
She said her office hasn’t seen the problems that have plagued election departments in other states.
The Virginia Department of Elections does enough double- and triple-checking of information to ensure that it’s reported correctly, Ryan said.
King George registrar Lorrie Gump said the rush of residents coming to vote early in her county started sooner this year than it did in 2020. Her office saw 100 people vote within the first hour the option was available, on Sept. 20.
Gump said she’s not sure whether more people are voting early this year than in 2020 because the phenomenon wasn’t tracked the same way four years ago.
But, she added: “It feels like it’s a lot busier.”
A total of 4,274 people had voted in person in King George as of Wednesday, and 812 ballots had been returned by mail.
She said if voters can have their IDs ready when they arrive to cast a ballot early at her office, the process can go quicker.
The residents who have voted early so far have been polite, she said.
“We are very fortunate here in King George,” she said.
The Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit political watchdog, was reporting that early voting was down overall around the Fredericksburg area as compared to 2020, but local registrars said they still feel good about turnout this year.
For one thing, it’s hard to compare 2024 to 2020 because that year included the pandemic, which led more people to choose some form of early voting. For example, in 2020, only 28 percent of voters in Stafford actually cast ballots on Election Day, Hash said.
University of Mary Washington Professor of Political Science Stephen Farnsworth said declines in early voting in the Fredericksburg area could mean that political candidates are spending too much on advertising this year and not enough on early voting efforts.
Early voting is important because it can give campaigns the opportunity to lock in their guaranteed voters, the dyed-in-the-wool partisans they know will come out to vote. Then, they can focus more on undecided voters.
“Early voting is a key thing for political campaigns,” said Farnsworth, who is also director of UMW’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies.
He said declines in early voting here are surprising because, in addition to the presidential race and the statewide race for U.S. Senate, the Fredericksburg area also has a close race for the House of Representatives on the ballot. Republican Derrick Anderson and Democrat Eugene Vindman are vying for an open seat in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.
View the Free Press voters guide here, with information about the candidates and what you’ll see on your ballot.
