ROANOKE, Va. – Tuesday marks another election day in the state of Virginia — but many voters like Ananya Mishra have already taken steps to make their voices heard.
“Getting to vote was really important to me,” Mishra said.
Mishra says without early voting, she most likely wouldn’t have been able to vote.
“I’m a medical resident, which means that my schedule changes a lot from week to week, I don’t necessarily have certain days off and things like that,” she said. “I might be working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., so the chance to vote early on a day that I could make it out over here gave me the opportunity to vote.”
She came out Friday and said the process was seamless.
“It was really straightforward were really nice in there with directing me when I didn’t really know what I was doing,” she said.
Director of Elections and General Registrar Andrew Cochran says early voting has picked up over the past several weeks.
“It’s been pretty busy,” Cochran said. “It started out slow. It’s a very long period of 45 days, so it always picks up the last two or three weeks.”
Cochran says he expects to hit around 5,000 early voters by the end of the voting period.
“I think it’s about average. I don’t think it’s high, presidential was extremely high,” he said.
By the time Election Day is said and done, Cochran says he expects a 45 to 50% turnout — about average for this particular election.
“One of the things voters need to bear in mind is the House of Delegates race is one that’s held every two years, however, because of statewide redistricting two years ago, the maps were not ready, so the last election for the House of Delegates was actually four years ago,” he said.
Mishra encourages people to get out and vote in this election — early or not.
“A lot of the things that are decided in local elections are really the things that are going to affect you most directly,” she said.
Early voting ends Saturday at 5 p.m. — so you still have time to cast your vote ahead of time.