Nearly every voter who showed up to vote Tuesday morning at Bethel High School in Hampton was wearing a mask, including Tom Taylor.
He considered voting absentee but assumed not many people would show up to vote in a municipal election in an epidemic, so keeping 6 feet away from everyone wouldn’t be a problem.
Taylor was right. Turnout was fairly light at the school, which had one of the highest vote counts in the 2016 and 2018 municipal elections.
Gov. Ralph Northam and other local officials had encouraged people apprehensive about flocking to the polls to vote absentee.
Lots of people listened. Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News and Hampton reported many thousands more absentee ballots than in previous years.
For those who showed up, election officials and poll workers were donning masks and gloves and making adjustments to keep voters safe.
Some polling places had a new pen for every voter. At others,poll workers cleaned voting stations after each voter. Many, like the Asbury Elementary Precinct in Hampton, had tape lines spaced 6 feet apart to ensure social distancing.
“It looks like they thought it out pretty well, trying to keep voters safe,” Taylor said.
Rachel Turner, voting at Asbury Elementary, said she didn’t feel the need to wear a mask in the polling place because everyone was spread out.
“I believe in very common-sense precautions. I know how to wash my hands,” Turner, a 39-year-old schoolteacher, said. “When I’m done with this, I will throw on some hand sanitizer. When I get home, I will wash them thoroughly.”
Amber Hodges, an assistant chief election official in Hampton, said poll workers were making sure the polls were cleaned and stocked with ample amounts of hand sanitizer.
Outside Newport News’ Downtown Precinct, Henry and Fae McDuffie said they were impressed with the accommodations officials made to help people vote, referencing the safety measures in the precincts, drive-up options and absentee ballots.
Election officers at the precinct said Tuesday’s turnout felt slow — by 11:30 a.m., they had seen only 23 voters in City Council chambers.
Frances Jones-Forson, described as a fixture at the precinct by the other election officers, was hoping for a good absentee turnout, wondering if the emphasis on absentee voting would actually bolster turnout, which is usually low for May local elections.
Newport News’ election coordinator, Lisa Dunn, said the registrar had issued more than 6,000 absentee ballots and by Tuesday afternoon it had received about 4,000 of them with more expected.
In 2018, the last local election in Newport News, 400 absentee ballots were issued and fewer than 300 were submitted.
Chesapeake registrar Mary Lynn Pinkerman said 21,000 voters requested them, which is about 20 times the normal amount — usually about a thousand.
She expects turnout to be about the same as a regular election when the in-person and absentee ballots are combined, about 15% or 20%.
Hampton said it mailed out 7,293 absentee ballots this year compared to 343 in the 2018 local election. Norfolk reported it had received more than 7,600 absentee ballots compared to 447 in 2018.
In Newport News, several people came to the Downtown Precinct with completed absentee ballots in hand. They were directed to City Hall.
At Hampton’s City Hall Precinct, where there were half as many poll workers as there normally would have been, some voters exchanged their blank absentee ballots for a regular ballot, according to precinct chief Vesta Wallio.
Wearing a mask, downtown Hampton resident Geraldine Newsom wasn’t bothered voting during the pandemic amid social distancing guidelines.
“We still need to vote. It’s very important … to choose the elected officials that are doing right things for the city,” Newsom said.
Staff writer Jessica Nolte contributed to this report.