Falls Church City Reports Record Voter Turnout

Updated at 2:55 p.m. — Voter turnout in the City of Falls Church has now topped 80% with residents turning in 8,573 ballots total as of 2 p.m., according to city elections officials.

The city is seeing its highest voter turnout ever with this year’s election easily surpassing the 7,860 votes cast in 2016, which previously saw the most number of votes, according to David Bjerke, the director of elections and general registrar for the City of Falls Church.

The 87.4% of active registered voters who cast ballots in 2012 remains the city’s high watermark for the percent of voters participating in a general election, but with 80.1% of voters having already cast their ballots by 2 p.m., 2020 could still potentially set a new record in terms of percentage as well as numbers.

2pm
CAP: 7552 (added mail and drop box)
Ward 1: 388
Ward 2: 318
Ward 3: 279

8573 ballots for 80.1%

4/5 of the City has voted. Less than 5 hours to break the record.

— Dave Bjerke (@davebjerke) November 3, 2020

The vast majority of ballots that both Falls Church City and Fairfax County have received so far were cast before Election Day after early voters turned out in droves, thanks to state legislation permitting no-excuse absentee voting took effect this year.

The City of Falls Church has received 7,552 absentee ballots, including ones delivered by mail and dropboxes, while in Fairfax County, more than 404,000 votes were cast early, according to county election officials.

As of 2 p.m., Fairfax County was seeing an estimated 16.1% voter turnout for Election Day. With absentee ballots constituting about 51% of the county’s voting population, that means 67.1% of the county’s 787,000 registered voters have cast ballots in this year’s general election.

Despite concerns about voter intimidation in the lead-up to Election Day, Fairfax County public information officer Brian Worthy said this morning that the county has not experienced any issues with voting at its 244 precincts, and turnout has been “light as expected” due to the high levels of early voters.

“There are no lines that I’ve heard of, although I witnessed a very small one around 6 a.m. at the Fairfax County Government Center,” Worthy said. “No lines now and very few voters.”

2 p.m. Turnout Update
✔️ Today: 16.1%
✔️ Early Voting: 51% (404,000 votes)
✔️ Estimated Total: 67.1% of 787,000 registered voters in Fairfax County

Vote or return mailed ballots by 7 p.m.#vote #vote2020 #electionday #election2020 #2020election pic.twitter.com/GbRq3OMrCK

— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) November 3, 2020

Photo via Fairfax County government/Twitter