If you recall recent years, many Virginia localities used to hold contests for city councils, town councils and school boards each May.
But as of July 1, local elections in the spring are no longer legal. Henceforth, all local elections are in November along with statewide and national elections — at least until a future General Assembly repeals that law and changes it back.
In general, that’s a good thing because spring elections tend to be ultra low-turnout affairs in which only a fraction of eligible voters participate. How can anyone in a democracy argue straight faced against bigger turnouts?
Last year for the first time, Virginia created early in-person voting on weekdays and Saturdays during the 45 days preceding an election. This year the General Assembly expanded that to allow for early voting on Sundays, too.
However, Sunday voting isn’t mandatory.
It’s up to local electoral boards — there’s one for each city and county in Virginia. And as of Monday, no locality in Western Virginia that I’m aware of had chosen the Sunday voting option, including Roanoke’s and Roanoke County’s.
There’s still time, however, for them to make that decision so keep your eyes peeled.
