Virginia is among a small group of states that hold elections for their state’s highest office outside the regular federal election schedule. But, following a breakneck series of meetings, that could change.
It’s far from a done deal, but if you ask Fairfax County Democratic Senator Scott Surovell Virginians should vote for governor and other executive and statehouse seats at the same time we vote for federal officials.
“For us it would increase turnout and it would save us a lot of money not having to run elections every year,” Surovell said Thursday morning.
The Senate Majority leader, he created a committee to study changing Virginia’s election timeline. At a recent meeting, Jessica Kimpell Johnson at UVA’s Karsh Institute presented research around the idea.
Here’s Johnson with the good news:
“Turnout increases with consolidation. As you’ll hear in a moment, we see this in other states, and we’ve seen this in Virginia," she told elected officials. "And we have data on this for you. Evidence suggests consolidated elections tend to produce more alignment between policy outcomes and voter preferences.”
And the bad:
“Consolidated elections can encourage nationalization, with federal races on the same ballot as state races."
On the right of the issue, Republican Northampton Delegate Rob Bloxom worried about another downside, ballots that become too long.
“I’m kind of curious if at some point, they’re just going to give up. I care about these two but not anything else,” Bloxom told the committee.
Another meeting of the election consolidation committee happens early August when a vote on moving forward with the process is expected to take place.
