Source: Virginia Department of Elections
Between 2014 and 2019, the number of Virginians registered to vote rose by nearly 308,000, an increase of about 6%, according to the Virginia Department of Elections. A similar trend occurred between 2009 and 2014.
The rate of increase during the past five years was higher in Richmond (15%), Hanover (10.4%) and Chesterfield (8.8%), but slightly lower in Henrico (4.6%).
Richard Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College, attributes most of the increase to population growth. While former Gov. Terry McAuliffe has said that his administration restored civil rights — including the right to vote — to more than 173,000 Virginians, and Gov. Ralph Northam in October announced 22,205 additional restorations since he took office in 2018, Meagher says voting by former felons is not likely to have a huge impact on election results. With much of the growth in registered voters occurring in urban areas, Meagher says he expects the trend toward Democratic victories to continue as Virginians cast their ballots this month to elect General Assembly members.
“Virginia is a Democratic state now, and to pretend anything otherwise, it just doesn’t matter,” he says.
But turnout can also make a difference. As Jeff Ryer, press secretary for the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus, told Virginia Commonwealth University’s Capital News Service in September, “One of the things I really like to point out to people is Republicans do much better at the polls than in the polls.”
