Moses Loynes, an election officer in Henrico County, leans against a ballot counting machine as voters trickle through the polling place at Charles M. Johnson Elementary School on Election Day. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)
If you’ve ever wanted to work the polls on Election Day in Virginia, you’re in luck.
Several localities around the state need help, especially from newly trained aides. Some cities and counties have boosted pay, appealed to residents’ sense of civic duty and emphasized the role everyday Virginians play in ensuring elections run smoothly.
“It’s important for the community to give back, and to help us administer safe and secure elections,” Christine Lewis, director of elections for Virginia Beach, told me. The state’s largest city added eight new polling locations this year, so it now has to staff more than 100 precincts.
What’s left unsaid: Virginia doesn’t face the same level of electoral acrimony and conspiracies as other states following Donald Trump’s persistent lies about the 2020 presidential results.
Thank goodness.
Maybe it’s because Democrat Joe Biden blitzed Trump here. He defeated the Republican standard-bearer by 10 percentage points and nearly half a million votes in Virginia in 2020. The outcome continued a recent streak of wins by Democratic presidential nominees in the commonwealth.
Republican Glenn Youngkin won a close gubernatorial contest against Democrat Terry...
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