There’s a trend growing in the commonwealth of Virginia that indicates the Old Dominion might actually be in play for Donald Trump, which is very bad news indeed for Kamala Harris and the Democrat Party. If Democrats aren’t screaming “Assume crash positions!” right about now, they might want to think about starting.
Early voting in Virginia, which Democrats tends to dominate, began back on September 25, and Republicans seem to be turning out in far greater numbers than expected. As of Monday, October 14, 2024, the early voting/absentee ballot numbers looked something like this:
693,662 votes cast
Democrats: 52.8%
Republicans: 41.5%
Yes, Democrats still hold the advantage of total votes cast thus far, but Republican voters, who are known to shy away from early voting in favor of voting in person on Election Day, are closing the traditional gap in a big, big way. Experts would expect to see Democrats have around a 30 percent advantage at this point, but they only hold an 11.3 percent lead.
The reporting of early voting/absentee ballot numbers needs to stop.
Early reporting of these numbers can and has caused a couple of different problems.
1 ) The candidate that I would vote for is way far ahead that there is no reason to vote.
2 ) The candidate that I would vote for is so far behind with no chance of winning, why should I vote.
I believe it was during the Ronald Reagan run for president, that by the time the polls closed east of the Mississippi, Ronald Reagan was reported to have won the presidency. The people west of the Mississippi did not feel they had to vote because Mr. Reagan already won. This had an impact on local elections because people did not go out and vote even for their local elections.