Fairfax County Early Voting Surged Past 227,000 — Up Nearly 62 Percent Over the Last Midterms
More than 227,000 Fairfax County voters had already cast ballots when early voting closed Saturday — nearly 172,000 of them in person — in a surge the Virginia Public Access Project's analysis ties in part to Democratic voters in the county's three congressional districts.
Fairfax County has already voted in numbers the last midterm never approached. More than 227,000 county voters cast ballots through early voting, which concluded at 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 31 — a nearly 62 percent increase over the 140,225 people who voted early in the 2022 midterms, though still below the 2024 presidential election, according to Virginia Department of Elections data collected by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project and reported by FFXnow.
The surge was overwhelmingly an in-person one: nearly 172,000 of the early ballots were cast in person, against more than 55,000 by mail. A VPAP data analysis suggests Democratic voters — particularly in the three congressional districts that include parts of Fairfax County — are helping drive the trend. Statewide, more than 1.6 million Virginians cast ballots early, in person or by mail.
What is left is Election Day itself, under different rules than the early window: on Tuesday, Fairfax voters must use their designated polling place, with polls open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots can be delivered to drop boxes at all voting precincts while polls are open. Voters should present identification at check-in; those without it can sign a confirmation statement or vote provisionally and provide ID to the Office of Elections before the ballot-counting deadline of noon on Friday, November 6.
The ballots being cast decide a full Northern Virginia slate: Senator Mark Warner's bid for a fourth term against Bert Mizusawa; the 11th District, fully inside Fairfax, where Representative James Walkinshaw seeks his first full term against Arthur Purves, with Dianne Blais also on the ballot; the 8th District, where Representative Don Beyer faces Tony Sabio; and the 10th, where Representative Suhas Subramanyam seeks a second term against Dave Beckwith, with independent Ahsen Mujeeb Malik on the ballot — alongside three proposed state constitutional amendments and the county's park and human-services bond questions.
