Democratic strongholds in Northern Virginia see big increases in early voting
Virginia’s Fairfax and Loudoun counties are seeing some of the largest spikes in early voting in the 2016 presidential election, another positive sign for Democrats who feel Hillary Clinton has a strong advantage over Republican Donald J. Trump in the former swing state.
Statewide, early voting was up more than 22 percent over 2012 with 25 days to go before the presidential election, according to an analysis by the Virginia Public Access Project. The increase was strongest by far in populous Northern Virginia, where Democrats typically run up large margins that Republicans struggle to match in the more conservative, rural parts of Virginia.
In Fairfax, which delivered the most Democratic votes for President Barack Obama in 2012, early voting was up more than 73 percent. In Loudoun, which had the second-most Obama votes in 2012, early voting was up almost 53 percent.
“I’m not surprised at that. Because we know about what the Clinton campaign is doing with turnout,” said Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. “We just know what their operation is like. We know that the Trump campaign has not had a similar operation.”
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