Polls close in Virginia as three competitive congressional seats hang in the balance
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RICHMOND —Virginia voters turned out steadily Tuesday at the climax of an unusually long balloting season that will test the limits of the state’s new blue identity in a time of pandemic and uncertainty.
Turbocharged by nearly four years of a Republican president who has proved deeply unpopular in the state, Democrats hoped to deliver a resounding win for former vice president Joe Biden over President Trump and extend their gains in congressional seats.
Democratic majorities in the state legislature expanded absentee voting this year, leading to a deluge of early ballots over the past 45 days that could lead to historic overall levels of turnout despite concerns about spreading the novel coronavirus.
Virginia 2020 live election results | The Washington Post
Early results began to roll in shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m., but it was too early to tell whether outcomes would become clear Tuesday or take several more days to determine because of the huge number of early ballots. Though totals were incomplete, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D) declared victory over Republican challenger Daniel Gade around 8 p.m.
More than 2.7 million Virginians had already voted in person or by mail as of Monday night, according to state data — nearly 69 percent of the total number (3.98 million) who turned out for the 2016 contest, and nearly five times the 566,948 who voted early four years ago.
[Va. voters are still requesting absentee ballots, even after the deadline has passed. That’s created confusion, officials say.]
From the eastern suburbs that are gaining influence to the rural western towns that fear losing it, Virginia voters of every persuasion expressed anxiety about the weight of this year’s election.
“I felt like it was a choice between democracy and fascism, so it was an easy choice for me,” said Thomas Elmore, a retired CIA and naval officer voting for Democrats in a hotly contested suburb of Richmond.
But in the same precinct, Dale Harvey — a nurse in her 40s — and husband Cliff voted a straight Republican ticket “because we believe in the Constitution.”
Elections officials said late Tuesday afternoon that voting was playing out smoothly around the state, with no reports of voter harassment or intimidation at any polling places and only minor incidents around the need to wear masks indoors because of the pandemic. In Norfolk, however, authorities said they arrested a 63-year-old man for allegedly threatening to bomb a polling place.
While the presidential race dominated, the ballot also contained choices for all 11 of the state’s U.S. House seats and one U.S. Senate race. Three of the congressional districts were particularly competitive, with Democrats hoping to hold on to two they picked up in 2018 and possibly gain one more.
Voters were also deciding on two proposed constitutional amendments — one to create a bipartisan redistricting commission, the other to exempt disabled veterans from personal property tax on a car or truck.
The wave of absentee ballots was an X factor in getting results. While state law allowed registrars to process early ballots as they came in, they could not be counted until after polls closed. All early ballots will be tabulated in the districts where they were cast and reported as absentee votes.
The state Department of Elections has instructed registrars to stop counting mail-in ballots by 11 p.m. and report totals to that point. If the results are incomplete, counting will resume Wednesday morning — though updated numbers will not be reported until Friday.
That could leave some outcomes temporarily in doubt. Tens of thousands of absentee ballots arrived by mail on Tuesday, and any ballot postmarked by Election Day can be accepted as late as noon on Friday. Officials said it could take several days to count those, with larger localities such as Fairfax County potentially pushing into Monday.
Virginia localities will certify the results on Nov. 10.
A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll of Virginia voters showed that a majority of early ballots had been cast for Democratic candidates and that people planning to vote on Tuesday were more likely to favor Republicans.
At the Spring Hill Recreation Center in McLean, Cory Mills, 40, wore a pro-Trump hat as he voted for Republicans all down the ballot. He said that Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s effort to produce a coronavirus vaccine, was “unprecedented” and that the White House did the best it could in the early days of the pandemic.
But in Warrenton, Lauren Parker — who usually votes Republican — was undecided about her presidential vote until she got to her polling place. Thinking about Trump’s handling of the novel coronavirus, she wound up making a last-minute switch to Biden.
“I just thought that leadership is what’s most important to me right now,” said Parker, a 38-year-old teacher.
Virginia’s presidential preference seemed predictable this year, with polls showing Biden holding a significant lead over Trump. The state has only become more blue since becoming the only former member of the Confederacy to support Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, and neither presidential campaign spent significantly here this year.
[When to expect election results in the Washington region]
Warner, the Democratic incumbent in the Senate, had held a significant lead over his GOP challenger, Gade, in both polling and fundraising. Warner had raised about $13.3 million, according to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project, compared with about $4 million for Gade, an Army veteran who lost a leg in combat in Iraq.
At the Kempsville library polling place in Virginia Beach, Carol Harrison, 59, voted early for the Democratic ticket and stayed to hand out party literature to other voters.
“I’m going to lose sleep if Trump wins,” she said.
By 5:20 a.m., there were already 30 people in line waiting to vote. When polls opened at 6, the line stretched a hundred yards down the side of the building and into the parking lot.
The scene was quieter at Lynwood Elementary School in Springfield several hours after polls opened. Democratic voter Steve Chozick, 52, who works in IT for the city of Arlington, said he was “terribly” anxious about the results of the election. He said that he is invested in Democratic policies, but his anxiety isn’t rooted in having the opposite party in power. It’s more about Trump specifically.
“I could live through another Republican administration,” Chozick said. “Not another administration that isn’t interested in governing.”
[In Va., gun-control fight gives rise to movement for county-approved militias]
The real drama on Virginia’s ballot this year involved three congressional races: In the 7th and 2nd congressional districts, where Republicans were trying to reclaim seats they lost to Democrats in 2018, and the 5th, which became surprisingly competitive after incumbent Rep. Denver Riggleman (R) lost his bid for reelection to Bob Good in a GOP nominating convention.
In central Virginia’s 7th District, analysts predicted that Republican Nick Freitas, a state delegate, would have trouble overcoming the increasingly blue vote in the western Richmond suburbs, where the district is anchored. Voters in Chesterfield and Henrico counties had carried Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) to victory in 2018, part of a suburban revolt against Trump.
Spanberger had presented herself as a moderate willing to stand up to Democratic Party leadership while focusing on issues affecting rural Americans: broadband access, soil conservation, prescription drug prices.
Freitas, meanwhile, pitched himself as a strict fiscal conservative seeking less government intervention in health care, supporting school choice and opposing virtually all gun restrictions. He launched a series of attack ads depicting Spanberger as leaning too far left for the district.
One voter who lives just outside Richmond, 40-year-old Amber Vitaliano, said she was so repulsed by harsh anti-Spanberger TV ads that the choice was easy.
“I saw the anti-ads that were bashing her and I said, ‘Okay, that’s who I want to vote for,’ ” she said. “Negative ads just have the opposite effect. I question them.”
In the Virginia Beach-area 2nd District, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria’s rematch against former congressman Scott Taylor turned bitter as smear ads and accusations of lying and scare tactics flew back and forth.
One voter in Virginia Beach, Josh Velazquez, 39, who said he historically has voted Republican, said he voted for Taylor in 2018 but decided to support Luria this time.
“I’ve been seeing her do a lot more for everybody,” he said. “If you’re making a difference, we’re going to hear about it and know about it. And that’s what I’ve been seeing a lot.”
Both Luria and Spanberger voted to impeach Trump in January, acknowledging that those votes could put them at risk in their red districts.
At the Robious polling place outside Richmond, Cliff Harvey, 56, said Spanberger’s vote to impeach Trump belied her pledge to work with both parties.
“We need the lies out,” he said. “Trump might not be a great person, but he seems to keep his promises.”
But Elmore, a former Republican who over the last decade has gravitated toward Democrats, thought Spanberger had done a good job of reaching across the aisle.
“She held all these town halls. She was very engaged,” said Elmore, 65, who last voted for a Republican for president in 2008, when fellow Naval Academy graduate John McCain was on the ballot. “I think she’s doing her best to be inclusive.”
The most unexpectedly tight race played out in the rural 5th District outside Charlottesville, with Democrat Cameron Webb showing strength against Good, the Republican nominee who ousted incumbent Riggleman and left Republicans divided.
[Republican divisions in Virginia House district animate Democrats’ hopes for an upset]
Good, a former Campbell County board supervisor, ran on a far-right platform as a religious conservative, pledging unwavering support for Trump’s “America First” agenda. Trump won the district by 11 points in 2016 — but lingering bitterness over Riggleman’s ouster and Webb’s made-for-the-times background allowed Webb to put the race in play.
Webb, a Black doctor, made his experiences as a physician a central part of his campaign, describing himself as a doctor working at the “intersection of social justice.” He also regularly spent time treating coronavirus patients on the overnight shift, expertise that some voters found especially attractive during the pandemic.
Donna Rowse, a 54-year-old voter in Charlottesville, said she voted for Webb because she trusted him to handle the health-care issue.
On the presidential ticket, she said she would take “anyone” over Trump — but was glad it was Biden. “I want a president we don’t have to be ashamed of,” she said, “a president that isn’t going to divide the country, who cares about all of us, not just some of us.”
Anna Brugmann, Jim Morrison, Antonio Olivo and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.