By JIMMY JAMES

(CNS) – With the elections just over a month away, there’s still time to register to vote and to vote early.

According to Henrico County General Registrar Mark Coakley, residents can vote early in several different locations.

Voters can cast their ballots at the Eastern Government Center at 3820 Nine Mile Road or the Western Government Center, 4305 E. Parham Road any time Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Starting Oct. 21, voters can also cast their ballots at the Varina Library Meeting Room,  1875 New Market Road The meeting room’s hours are also 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Both the Varina Library Meeting Room and the respective government centers’ hours will change slightly to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 26 and Nov. 2, which are two Saturday dates available for early voting.

Coakley said part-time election poll workers are split between the early voting locations, managing the lines at the door and assisting voters with the same voting machines that would be used during Election Day on Nov. 5.

“So it’s just like Nov. 5, except you get to choose what day you want to vote,” Coakley said.

Coakley said there are a lot of unknown circumstances that could serve as hindrances to people voting on election day. For instance, the uncertainty of traffic on Interstates 64 or 95 could pose a possible hiccup for voters to navigate, which could be a reason to vote early.

“If you know who you want to vote for, I don’t see why not come out and vote at your convenience,” Coakley said. 

According to Coakley, more than  22,000 ballots have been mailed to Henricoresidents for the 2024 election, which serves as another alternative for people voting early in central Virginia. Coakley said each mail-in ballot comes pre-stamped and can be mailed back or put in one of the five drop box locations in Henrico’s magisterial districts.

“Those secure drop boxes have a camera on them 24/7,” Coakley said. “They’re available all day and night for you to drop off your ballot if you don’t wanna put it back in the mail.”

This was how many Henrico citizens chose to vote in the last presidential election in 2020. Coakley said for that election, around 66 percent  of eligible voters in Henrico voted by mail or through early voting, while around 33 percent voted in person at the polling location.

This year, Henrico is seeing more people voting early compared to the 2020 election, according to office manager for both government center locations, Ivy Perkins, who works from the satellite office at the Eastern Government Center.

“We’re averaging like 350 [early voters] a day,” Perkins said, noting that about 1,000 people came out on the first day. “ Voters are coming in and out. We don’t have any lines. We did have a line the first day, but otherwise we have a good flow. We’ve been having poll watchers, that’s normal, and we’ve been having very pleasant ones. And we have a full staff, a good staff.”