Virginia has pivotal local elections, including hundreds of open school board seats, to the entire general assembly’s seats being up for grabs. The candidate for Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Stephan Karbelk said, unlike in the past, conservatives need to take advantage of the 45-day early voting window and vote, either by mail or in person.
“We really can’t complain about the rules. We just have to work within the rules,” Karbelk told The Epoch Times. “Republicans need to do their part to get out the vote, just like the Democrats are doing.”
Governor Glenn Youngkin is urging all Virginians to vote early, whether by mail or in person. Virginia is one of the “no excuse” absentee ballot states, where no questions are asked about why a person wants to vote by mail.
“You can request it for any reason, and if you’re going to be voting along a party line, It makes sense for those people to go and cast their vote [early],” Karbelk said.
Early voting for Virginia’s November elections will begin on September 22.
Karbelk said GOP candidates are being asked to spread the word and help educate Republican voters about early voting as they meet them at their campaign events, in particular, because it’s an off year.
“Now that you can request ballots online or you can actually physically go vote at the registrar’s office it’s a completely new concept, and so people do need to know about that,” said Karbelk. “It is a little more challenging and what’s called an off-off year, where there are no statewide candidates that are really driving out the vote.”
Moreover, Dee Duncan, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) in Virginia, believes the strategy for winning majorities in the Virginia Assembly House and Senate and taking majorities in other local elections includes a major push for early and mail voting.
In July, Youngkin initiated an early voting campaign to promote early in-person and by mail amongst Republicans, called Secure Your Vote and in a promotional video, he encourages every voter to vote early.
“To take us to the next level, I need your early vote this year,” Youngkin says in the effort’s announcement video. “We can’t go into our elections down thousands of voters. You can secure your vote before Election Day.”
Every seat in Virginia’s General Assembly is up for election. If the GOP can keep the majority in the House and pick up two seats in the Senate, Youngkin will have a conservative legislature.
“It really changes the dynamics of how you run a campaign because there'll be people that are now voting for 45 days,” said Karbelk. “People could be voting by September 26, or they could be holding their ballot until October.”
Karbelk said campaigning face-to-face is much more important because each time you meet a voter could be a day that person goes to vote or cast their mail-in ballot.
“You have to assume that’s the case, and you have to just do your best to make your case for why they should win,” said Karbelk. “It really requires candidates to try to maximize their marketing effectiveness for a 45-day period.”
“This is really a local election, every vote really does matter,” said Karbelk. All throughout Virginia’s localities, Republicans are spreading the vote early message.
After the 2020 presidential election, Adrienne Padget became much more active in her local area of Louisa County, Virginia, and works as an election integrity volunteer. She said although she is against ballot harvesting and drop boxes, she is totally on board with Youngkin’s vote-by-mail and early voting initiative.
“We as conservatives have to play with the same playing cards as liberals if we want to win elections. We cannot go in on Election Day thousands of votes behind before the poles even open and expect to win,” Padget told The Epoch Times.
