Early voting turnout across Tri-City area remains steady and ahead of 2020 pace: The data

It is now a week into the early voting season for the 2024 November elections, and turnout continues to stay steady and ahead of the pace set in 2020, according to data from the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

While excitement for the ballot in Petersburg is likely enhanced by the presence of the casino referendum , VPAP’s analysis of vote counts shows margins between now and four years ago to be higher than Petersburg in all other parts of the Tri-City area. In Prince George County, for example, 163 more early votes had been cast as of Thursday than at the same point in 2020, compared to 58 more in Petersburg.

In a bit of irony, both Petersburg and Prince George had each recorded 1,170 ballots five days into the 2020 voting period.

The largest margin of increase is in Dinwiddie County, where there have been 410 more early ballots cast. Hopewell has recorded 220 more votes, and Colonial Heights has notched 217 more.

Record shattered for first day of early voting in Petersburg. Will that momentum continue?

As of Thursday, VPAP reports the following five-day early voter turnout across the Tri-City area:

• Prince George: 1,333

• Petersburg: 1,228

• Dinwiddie: 992

• Hopewell: 799

• Colonial Heights: 776

Area voters are showing a preference for showing up at their registrars’ office as opposed to mailing in the ballots. All localities are indicating that nine of every 10 votes cast thus far have been in-person.

Early voting ends Nov. 2, three days before the general election.

What's on the ballot across our area? Hopewell council vets opt for sidelines; Petersburg, CH incumbents are in: Who's running in November?

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Early voting turnout across Tri-City area remains steady and ahead of 2020 pace: The data