Virginia early voting begins this week for congressional primaries
Virginia voters are about to go to the polls again, with 45 days of early voting beginning this week in party primaries for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives after a bruising six-month battle over political redistricting that ended with nothing changed.
Early, in-person voting will begin on Thursday instead of Friday, which is a state holiday celebrating Juneteenth — observing the end of slavery after the Civil War. Early voting continues through Aug. 1, with Election Day on Aug. 4.
The primary comes about six weeks later than usual because of a push by Virginia Democrats to redraw congressional maps in response to redistricting by Republican-controlled states that President Donald Trump demanded to protect and expand the slim GOP majority in the House of Representatives. Voters approved new maps on April 21 that would have given Democrats the advantage in 10 of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts, but a sharply divided Virginia Supreme Court threw out the plan on…