Voting in Modern Virginia

Virginia has a locally administered, state-supervised electoral system with four key entities
Source: Joint Legislative and Advisory Committee (JLARC), Operations and Performance of Virginia's Department of Elections (Figure 1-1)

In Virginia, local registrars and Electoral Boards administer elections in 133 jurisdictions. They organize the ballot, recruit officers of election (election officials), obtain suitable polling places, distribute ballots, and compile results. The Virginia Department of Elections (ELECT) issues guidance and manages the Virginia Election and Registration Information System (VERIS), which publicizes results on a website. The State Board of Elections certifies official results, except for recounts which are processed by Circuit Court judges.

On election day, polls are open between 6:00am-7:00pm. If there are problems with the voting machines or ballots have been misprinted, a precinct may open late or even close for a portion of the day. Voters must wait or come back later in order to cast their ballot.

Voters who go to the polls on election day will show identification, be recorded in the poll book (or turned away if not registered), and given a paper ballot. Voters then go to a booth where they mark their preferences on the paper ballot. The last stage in voting is to walk over to a scanner and run the ballot through it. When recorded by the scanner, a flag appears on screen. The paper stays in the scanner, and a poll worker gives the voter a sticker to advertise their participation in the process. Everyone standing in line at 7:00pm is allowed to vote, but those voters cast provisional ballots.

After all voting is completed, election officials at each precinct tabulate the votes. The electronic scanners were tested before polls open at 6:00am, and the Zero Tape documented that there were no pre-recorded votes. At the end of voting, the Results Tape from each machine reveals the totals that reflect preferences of the voters using each machine. At the precincts, election officials complete a Statement of Results worksheet with vote totals and submit it to the Electoral Board at election headquarters.

The Electoral Board meets in private to determine the qualifications of those who cast provisional votes, so those get counted on election night along with absentee ballots. The Electoral Board then holds a public meeting known as the "canvass." In the canvass, election officials consolidate results from the individual precincts. Candidates may have observers with an unobstructed view of the officials tabulating the votes.

The procedures for elections are defined in the Code of Virginia and guidance from the Virginia Board of Elections. There are provisions for different circumstances, designed to minimize the risk of voter fraud while facilitating a person's right to vote. For example, if a person is at least 65 years old or disabled but can get to their precinct's voting place, two election officials will carry a paper ballot out to a car.¹

Virginia elections are decided by the plurality of voters; the candidate receiving the most votes is declared the winner, even if their total is less than a 50% majority.

In some states, candidates must receive over 50% or the total vote (a "majority") to win. If those states, if there are three or more candidates and no one receives a majority, a runoff election is required to decide the winner. Virginia only holds runoff elections when there is a tie vote for a US House of Representatives or General Assembly seat, US Senate, or local office. The law requiring runoff elections was passed in 2020, after a tie vote for a House of Delegates seat was broken by pulling the winner's name from a bowl.

In 2020, the General Assembly authorized Arlington County to experiment with ranked choice voting for County Board races. In that process, voters rank their preferences on the ballot. If no one receives 50% of the vote, then votes for the lowest-ranked candidate are eliminated and the second-ranked preference on those ballots is counted.

If there were only three candidates, then one of the remaining two will get over 50%. The winner might have received fewer "first place" votes, but scored a majority of the "second place" votes for the eliminated candidate. If there were more than three candidates on the ballot and redistribution of votes does not give anyone 50%, then the lowest-ranked remaining candidate is eliminated and his/her second-place votes are redistributed.

Ranked choice voting guarantees that the ultimate winner will have received a majority of votes. It provides an instant-runoff, without the delays and costs to hold a second election to pick a winner.

Ranked choice voting also allows voters to initially choose a third-party candidate, with less concern that they are wasting their vote. If, for example, 10% of voters prefer a third-party candidate while the Republicans and Democrats split the remainder, then the first reports after the election will show a 45-45-10% split. Under a ranked choice process, the ballots for the third party candidate will be recalculated, counting the second-ranked preference. If 80% of those ballots listed the Republican candidate as the second preference and 20% preferred the Democratic candidate, then the final vote would have 53% for the Republican and 47% for the Democrat.

The Arlington Democratic Party started using the process to nominate candidates for County Board and School Board elections in 2020. None of the nominees for each race that year won 50% of the vote on the first round. In a plurality process, had come in second in the initial vote, but no one had won a majority exceeding 50%. When the second-ranked

Arlington had to upgrade its voting software in order to calculate votes for more than three candidates. The county had to prepare for the possibility that four or more candidates would appear on the ballot, so it did not use ranked choice voting in 2020. Other legislation approved in 2021 allowed jurisdictions to adopt ranked choice voting for county supervisor and city council races for 10 years, starting in 2021.²

Modern voting procedures have a long, and not always honorable, history. Policies and standard operating procedures have been developed over time to address voter fraud (especially for absentee voting) and voter intimidation.

campaigning is restricted at polling places, including limits on loudspeakers
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, Guidelines for Campaigners and Authorized Representatives

In 1883, a supposed "riot" in Danville was publicized by Democrats as a sign that African-Americans were demanding social and economic equality, beyond the right to vote. The Democrats won control of the General Assembly in that election. After losing the race for governor in 1885, the Readjuster Party dissolved.³

Democrats consolidated control of the state. After passing the Anderson-McCormick Act in 1884, the General Assembly changed the voting procedures and appointed three-member electoral boards for each local jurisdiction. Those election officials facilitated election tampering and voter suppression so Democratic candidates gained an unfair advantage.⁴

Virginia became part of the Solid South where the capacity of Republicans to be elected was low. White voters remembered that Republicans controlled the Federal government during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and were reportedly willing to vote even for a yellow dog so long as it was a Democrat.

Voting by blacks was constrained through official procedures and unofficial intimidation, minimizing their ability to participate in the political process. However, John Mercer Langston ran as a Republican and managed to win election to the US Congress in 1888. The election of Virginia's first black US representative was disputed in the US Congress, and the seat was left empty for over a year.

Mercer served only the last seven months of his two-year term, and it was not until 1993 that Virginia elected its second African-American (Rep. Bobby Scott) to Congress. After 1891, no people of color served in the General Assembly until after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1968, Dr. William Ferguson Reid was elected from Richmond to serve in the House of Delegates.

The first black to be elected to the State Senate in modern times was L. Douglas Wilder, in 1970. He became the first person of color to be elected to statewide office as Lieutenant Governor in 1985, and then was elected Governor in 1989. In the 1985 election, Mary Sue Terry became the first and only woman to be elected to a statewide office when she won the race for Attorney General.⁵

After the 1902 state constitution disfranchised most African-American voters in Virginia, only the "Fighting Ninth" District for the US House of Representatives in southwestern Virginia remained competitive for Republicans. There were few black voters in that corner of Virginia, but throughout the 1800's the white residents had resented how the General Assembly and governor directed state revenues to benefit primarily the area east of the Blue Ridge. Southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee residents had little enthusiasm for secession and fighting for slavery during the Civil War, and because of the independent voters some Republicans continued to win elections there.

To enhance prospects in Virginia, Rep. C. Bascom Slemp from the 9th District led the "lily white" movement in Virginia's Republican Party. It excluded African-Americans from voting in the statewide convention in 1920, and in 1921 the Republican Party even banned African-Americans from the visitor's gallery. In response to the shunning by Republicans, a convention of 600 black delegates in 1921 nominated an independent ticket for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, treasurer, secretary of the commonwealth, State Corporation Council commissioner, and commissioner of agriculture. All the candidates were black.⁶

The Democratic Party maintained full control of state government until 1969. Key contests occurred in the Democratic primaries rather than in the general elections, and winning the Democratic Party primary ensured election. Between the 1920's-1960, Harry Byrd served first as governor and then as US Senator, and his Democratic Party "organization" controlled the General Assembly.

In 1946, the General Assembly created a State Board of Elections to oversee the work performed by city and county registrars and to ensure uniform application of the state's election laws and procedures. The new agency assumed responsibilities from the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Board of State Canvassers. In 2014, the Department of Elections was created to manage the administrative work, including maintenance of a statewide automated voter registration system.

The State Board of Elections retained its regulatory responsibilities, and makes final decisions regarding election disputes. The governor appoints the five-member board, subject to State Senate confirmation. Three members must represent the party that won the most recent race for Governor and two members represent the other party. Terms of appointees are staggered; all five do not expire at the start of a new Governor's term. A new governor's appointees to the State Board of Elections do not alter the partisan balance until two years after an election, but at the start of his/her term the Governor can appoint a new Commissioner to lead the Virginia Department of Elections.

In 2024, the House of Delegates approved a bill by a 99-0 vote to authorize the State Board of Elections to appoint the commissioner, rather than the governor. The intent was to make the position less subject to partisan influence. HB 742 died in an 8-7 vote in the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee.

All Democrats on the committee opposed the bill because it required a supermajority vote to hire/fire the commissioner. The Democrats argued that requiring four of the five members to make a decision, guaranteeing a bipartisan vote, could result in gridlock. Just two members could block action by the majority of three members. The partisan vote may have reflected an expectation that in the future, Democrats would elect most governors. Those governors would appoint three members to the State Board of Elections, and Republicans in the minority should not be empowered to block action of the majority.

In theory, the Department of Elections is a professional, non-partisan agency. It maintains the statewide registration system (Virginia Election and Registration Information System or VERIS) for 5.5 million voters, delivers electronic absentee ballots to eligible military and overseas voters, helps local election officials follow established procedures and ensures election integrity. By its very nature, however, the State Board of Elections is a partisan oversight body. Politics may tilt the actions of the executive agency, including decisions regarding the eligibility of candidates who must file state-required forms to qualify for the ballot.

A 2018 report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) concluded that the voter rolls were mostly accurate, but under Governor Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia Department of Elections:⁷

...leadership created an environment in which one party was openly supported over the other.

the State Board of Elections is the regulatory body, while the Department of Elections administers elections
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, Elections' Organizational Chart

In the middle of the 20th Century, Virginia's electorate appeared schizophrenic to outsiders. As the national Republican Party became more conservative and the national Democratic Party became more liberal, Virginia voted for Republican presidential candidates in Federal elections but for Democrats in state/local elections.

Federal legislation and court rulings in the 1960's expanded the electorate, allowing minorities an opportunity to vote and win elections. New legislative districts were drawn in 1965 to comply with "one person-one vote" decisions by state and Federal courts.

Rep. Howard W. Smith had been elected nine times in the 8th Congressional District and had risen to become chair of the House Rules Committee, but in 1966 the more-liberal George W. Rawlings defeated Rep. Smith in the Democratic primary. Many conservative Democrats did not support Rawlings in the general election, and the Republican candidate (William Scott) defeated Rawlings. That led to more Republican victories in Northern Virginia for the next three decades.

In 1969, Republican Linwood Holton won the governor's office as the more-liberal candidate in the race. In 1973, the Virginia parties finally aligned with their national counterparts. The state Democratic Party shifted to the left, and Virginia Republicans became the conservative alternative.

After 2000, demographic changes helped make Northern Virginia a stronghold for liberal Democrats. Former Rep. Tom Davis, the last Republican elected to the US House of Representatives in Northern Virginia, emphasized that the shift occurred because his political party had advocated for social issues that resonated in rural areas (such as gun rights) but not addressed concerns of suburban voters. Republicans lost support as those suburban voters, particularly women, became a greater percentage of the electorate.

Del. Tim Hugo was the last Republican from Fairfax County and one of the last in all of Northern Virginia serving in the House of Delegates, after a "blue wave" of Democratic victories in 2017. During Hugo's unsuccessful 2019 campaign to retain the 40th District seat, he minimized his status as a Republican and referred to himself as a "Delegate Pothole" focused on local issues and constituent services. His opponent was clear in defining himself as a Democrat, and that helped him flip the seat in 2019.

Across the state, Democrats increased their majorities in suburban districts as the electorate migrated away from the Republican Party's conservative agenda on social issues. Tom Davis commented before the election:⁸

If Tim loses, it will just continue the march of the Republican base from the country club to the country.

in 2019, the Republican candidate for the 40th District minimized his association with the Republican Party - while his Democratic opponent did the opposite
Source: Tim Hugo - Delegate and Dan Helmer - Democrat for Delegate

Hugo did lose the race, as did the Republican candidate in the 13th State Senate district. After 2019, there was only one Republican left in the General Assembly representing a district in Northern Virginia north of the Occoquan River. The day after Rep. Dave LaRock was re-elected to the House of Delegates from the 33rd District, he commented:⁹