Democrats Break Early Voting Record in Virginia Primary as GOP Ticket Is Finalized

Virginia Democrats have set a new record for early voting in a state-level primary, with more than 189,000 Democratic ballots cast ahead of the June 18 election to nominate their candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general. That is a sharp increase from the 124,491 early ballots cast in the party’s 2021 primary, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Statewide, more than 204,000 early ballots were submitted across both parties, including 15,610 in the Republican primary. Among Democratic voters, 90,315 cast ballots in person and 98,772 voted by mail. Republican early voting included just over 10,900 ballots in person and about 4,700 by mail. The difference in turnout between parties is due to Republicans not holding contested primaries for the three statewide offices, as only one candidate qualified in each race. GOP voters instead focused on down-ballot legislative and local contests....