Virginia Senate Election: Voter Turnout

Virginia voters head to the polls Nov. 3 to decide three constitutional amendments — on reproductive rights, marriage equality, and automatic restoration of voting rights for felons after sentence completion — alongside federal races. Sen. Mark Warner seeks a fourth term against Bert Mizusawa, while competitive U.S. House contests play out in the 1st (Wittman vs. Taylor), 4th (McClellan vs. Murray and Bell), and 5th (McGuire vs. Perriello and Harvey) districts. Richmond and Chesterfield voters will also weigh a 1% sales tax increase to fund school construction, alongside 45 other Virginia localities, plus local School Board and Board of Supervisors races. Early voting runs through Oct. 31.

Michigan's Secretary of State's office reports absentee ballot returns running 30% ahead of the 2022 midterm cycle, with 201,909 ballots returned as of Oct. 6, compared with 155,142 at the equivalent point four years earlier. More than 2 million Michigan voters have requested absentee ballots this year, an increase officials attribute mainly to growth in the permanent absentee voter list rather than a surge in overall turnout enthusiasm. Michigan's ballot features races for governor, attorney general, secretary of state, the Legislature, and a competitive open U.S. Senate seat between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers.

Other states are moving into their voting windows. California counties including Stanislaus have begun mailing ballots ahead of an Oct. 19 registration deadline. Virginia's early in-person voting runs through Oct. 31, with mail ballots due by Election Day, Nov. 3; its ballot includes a U.S. Senate seat and all 11 House seats. Iowa's absentee window opens Oct. 14, with written ballot requests due by Oct. 19 and completed ballots due by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3; its ballot includes governor, U.S. Senate and House, and other statewide offices.

Early voting opened Sept. 18 in Virginia ahead of the Nov. 3 election, with voting continuing through Oct. 31 and a voter registration deadline of Oct. 23. Voters statewide will decide three constitutional amendments covering reproductive rights, marriage equality (protecting gay and interracial marriage), and automatic restoration of voting rights for felons who complete their sentences.

Congressional races include Democratic Sen. Mark Warner seeking a fourth term against Republican Bert Mizusawa, plus contests in the 1st District (Rob Wittman vs. Shannon Taylor), 4th District (Jennifer McClellan vs. Robert Murray Jr. and Joan Bell), and 5th District (John McGuire vs. Tom Perriello and Cooke Harvey). Richmond and Chesterfield voters, along with 45 other localities, will also weigh a potential 1% sales tax increase dedicated to school construction, projected to raise roughly $47 million annually in Richmond and up to $70 million in Chesterfield. Local races include a Richmond School Board special election and a contested Chesterfield School Board seat.

Early voting has opened in Virginia ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, running through Oct. 31 with a voter registration deadline of Oct. 23. Voters statewide will decide three constitutional amendments covering reproductive rights, marriage equality (protecting gay and interracial marriage), and automatic restoration of voting rights for felons who complete their sentences.

Richmond-area voters will also weigh in on federal races: Sen. Mark Warner seeks a fourth term against Bert Mizusawa, while U.S. House contests include the 1st District (Rob Wittman vs. Shannon Taylor), 4th District (Jennifer McClellan vs. Robert Murray Jr. and Joan Bell), and 5th District (John McGuire vs. Tom Perriello and Cooke Harvey). Richmond and Chesterfield, along with 45 other Virginia localities, will vote on authorizing a local 1% sales tax for school construction, projected to raise roughly $47 million and $70 million annually, respectively. Richmond also holds a special School Board election between incumbent Anne Holton and Jackie McDonnough.

Adam Hamilton, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kansas, said he would not support Sen. Charles Schumer's bid to remain Senate Democratic leader, citing a need for "fresh ideas" and "fresh people." Hamilton, a Methodist pastor and former Republican running as a centrist against GOP Sen. Roger Marshall, made the comments Sunday on ABC's "This Week." He has held a slight edge in recent polling, fueling Democratic hopes of flipping the seat as part of a path back to a Senate majority.

No Democrat has formally challenged Schumer's leadership, but Hamilton named Sens. Tim Kaine, Mark Kelly, and Elissa Slotkin as senators he respects who could fill the role. He also pointed to Vice President J.D. Vance's recent campaign visit to Kansas for Marshall as evidence Republicans are worried about the race. Hamilton further distanced himself from national Democratic positioning, saying he opposes biological men competing in women's sports while criticizing Republican rhetoric he called fearmongering toward transgender people.

Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, 82, president pro tempore of the Senate and chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, was indicted and surrendered to federal custody alongside six co-defendants, including two daughters (Lisa Lucas Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb) and a grandson (Ryan Eichelberger), on racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking, bribery, money laundering and honest-services fraud charges filed by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel allege Lucas led a "criminal marijuana enterprise" built by family and associates, paying $750,000 for control of a shell company used to obtain a state cannabis license and later receiving a bribery payment, while using her committee chairmanship to shield and benefit the operation. The case follows an FBI raid on Lucas's office in May. Lucas, a longtime cannabis-legalization advocate, denies wrongdoing, calling the case political retaliation and intimidation. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger criticized the indictment's timing as inconsistent with Justice Department norms near elections, though the investigation originated under the Biden administration.

In Michigan's closely watched US Senate race, Republicans are canvassing for candidate Mike Rogers using a strategy that paints Democratic rival Abdul El-Sayed and his party as having veered toward socialism, while trying to mobilize infrequent voters ahead of November's midterms. Reuters observed Americans for Prosperity Action canvassers in Livonia finding mixed results: some Trump-aligned voters embraced the message, while others rejected the "extremist" framing or expressed uncertainty due to dissatisfaction with President Trump himself.

El-Sayed rejects the socialist label, calling himself a capitalist, and his campaign cites a large volunteer base. Republicans face an enthusiasm gap nationally, with polling showing Democrats more energized for the midterms, even as GOP-aligned groups outspend Democrats and plan a massive door-knocking operation. Michigan Democrats counter with their own expanded canvassing effort. The race, which Rogers narrowly lost in 2024, is seen as a bellwether for broader Republican turnout strategy and control of the Senate.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones says the Department of Homeland Security may have violated multiple state laws after a whistleblower alleged DHS employees misrepresented themselves on voter lookup tools to hunt for noncitizen voters. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Jones demanded written confirmation of whether DHS directed anyone to access Virginia voters' information without their consent, noting state law bars disclosure of such protected data to federal authorities absent a court order. Virginia's lookup tools are limited to individuals attesting under penalty of law that they are checking their own records.

The whistleblower report, released by Democratic Senate leaders, includes training transcripts showing USCIS staff were pulled from other duties in late August for a short training session, then tasked with running DHS-provided lists through state voter systems to flag "unlawful voters," reviewing roughly 40 people daily. The Trump administration has cited noncitizen voting as a potential fraud risk ahead of the midterms, despite research showing it is rare. The Justice Department has separately sued for voter data in 30 states and Washington, D.C., without success so far.

Virginia is grappling with erroneous felony-related voter registration actions just as voters decide Question 3, a constitutional amendment that would automatically restore voting rights to people with felony convictions once they leave prison. Currently, a felony conviction strips voting rights unless the governor intervenes, but a federal judge ruled in January that an 1870 federal law bars Virginia from withholding rights over most felony convictions. State officials initially kept nearly 300 modern crimes as disqualifying before the judge rejected that reading in August, narrowing disqualification to murder and manslaughter for non-incarcerated people and prompting notices to roughly 235,000 people newly eligible to register.

Under the broader, now-rejected interpretation, Virginia wrongly denied or canceled up to 998 registrations, including dozens in the Richmond region. A separate, now-fixed error in Chesterfield briefly canceled a resident's registration last month. It remains unclear how many eligible voters were affected during the August primary or early voting, and the state's overdue annual voter roll report has not been published.