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A line of voters wrapped around Randolph Community Center shortly after polls opened Tuesday morning.
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Poll workers sporting masks and face shields direct voters at Charles M. Johnson Elementary School in Henrico County.
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Richmond mayoral candidate Alexsis Rodgers speaks with Timothy Justin Left and Samantha Turner Left at Fourth Baptist Church on P Street.
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U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, incumbent in Virginia's 7th District, speaks with supporters during an Election Day campaign stop at Charles M. Johnson Elementary School.
Though an unprecedented number of area residents took advantage of no-excuse absentee voting in the weeks leading up to Election Day, voters across the region still turned out to make their voices heard at the ballot box Tuesday.
While the clash between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden on the national stage was top of mind for many area voters, local and congressional races also motivated some who said they were focused on local issues such as education and housing.
Shortly after sunrise, Maureen Ackerley and her daughter Cooper stood in front of Tabernacle Baptist Church on Grove Avenue greeting voters and handing out literature in support of their neighbor Katherine Jordan, who is running for the open 2nd District City Council seat vacated by mayoral candidate Kim Gray. Cooper, 17, says tensions between Trump and Biden inspired her to get involved in local politics, and she volunteered during door-knocking campaigns for Jordan.
“I think the last four years have really engaged a lot of people, whether they wanted to engage or not, and I think it’s also been, in many ways, depending on your perspective, it’s been really good to make people realize that we do have a say in what happens both nationally and locally,” Maureen said.
As a parent with children who currently attend Richmond Public Schools, Becca Duval said she was inspired to support 2nd District School Board incumbent Scott Barlow for his leadership during last year’s rezoning debate.
“He is a class act,” she said. “We had a very contentious rezoning that I was very active in and followed along, and he just has an incredible way of speaking truth while staying kind, and in the face of people who are not very kind, and I like the idea that he’s going to bat for my kids and I feel that he’s doing a great job.”
In Virginia, 2.75 million absentee ballots were cast as of Monday, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, more than four times the amount of early voters during the last presidential election in 2016. Locally, that increase led to more than 360,000 early ballots across Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover, according to tallies provided by area voter registrars.
Brenda Johnson, officer of election at Henrico County’s Belmont Recreation Center, said her precinct received between 500 and 600 absentee ballots this year, up from the usual 30 to 40 ballots.
“This is the most absentee voting I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been here for over 30 years,” she added.
Richard Starns, chief of elections at North Courthouse Library in Chesterfield, said his precinct received 544 votes as of 2:30 p.m., far below the norm for a presidential election.
“We’ve never had the early voting before, so the absentee [numbers are] a whole lot more,” he said.
During a Tuesday-morning media briefing, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Christopher Piper said the day was going smoothly, with no major issues at precincts across the state and no reports of voter intimidation, a concern for heading into Election Day.
In Henrico, two voters at Charles M. Johnson Elementary School represented opposite sides of the heated political debate at the center of this year’s presidential election. Mike Ely, 50, called himself a staunch conservative and said he supported Trump because he wants to see the United States bounce back from dire economic straits caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our current president is the right one to get us back on track and make sure that we come out of this the way that we were before,” he said.
Meanwhile, 43-year-old nurse and mother Robin Wells said her primary motivator in this year’s election is to ensure Trump is voted out.
“I need someone who cares. I don’t need anyone in office that is saying one thing to one group of people and then says another [thing to another group],” she added. “I just need all of us to make a stand, and understand that the ancestors that came before me died, were mistreated, were bullied just to have a vote, and so we need to exercise that vote to honor them.”
Candidates in Richmond’s mayoral race also made the rounds to polling places across the city Tuesday. Mayor Levar Stoney, who is seeking his second term, said he was encouraged by the energy around the election and called himself the right choice to lead the city into 2021.
“I’ve been telling folks for the last couple weeks that I see my record as not the end to all of Richmond’s problems, but as the beginning to the solutions,” he said. “I believe that we need to be solution-oriented, solution-focused as we enter this next decade because I think the next decade is going to be one of the most critical decades in the city’s history.”
Alexsis Rodgers, the Virginia director for Care in Action and one of Stoney’s challengers, said she’d focus on solving the city’s affordable housing crisis after speaking with a couple at Fourth Baptist Church in Church Hill who are both currently facing homelessness.
“It’s a human right that people have access to a safe place to lay their head at night, in my opinion, so it’s incumbent upon our leaders — City Council and the mayor — to come together and figure out how we solve it,” she said. “That’s why I’m looking forward to, when I’m mayor, building that coalition so we can address it.”
Timothy Justin Left and his wife, Samantha Turner Left, say they moved back to Richmond after losing their home in Waynesboro and ended up living on the streets after they were unable to move in with family members. As Timothy lamented the situation, he said he was thankful for Rodgers’ support.
“I was glad that I got to meet her in person, and she seems to be concerned about what’s going on in our life, and hopefully, she’ll get elected because we need someone to speak for our silent cause,” he said.
Meanwhile, Richmond resident Gordon Bass said he chose to volunteer as a poll worker for the first time Tuesday and was heartened to see a line of voters at Randolph Community Center when polls opened at 6 a.m.
“It’s the most important election of our lifetimes, without question,” he said. “I’m glad they’re out and they’re doing their civic duty.”
