The League of Women Voters of Arlington and Alexandria City is urging those voting by mail this fall to deposit those ballots in the mailbox at least 10 days early.
The suggestion was made during the public-comment period of the Sept. 10 Arlington Electoral Board meeting, and came a month after local election officials confirmed that several hundred ballots in June’s primary elections did not get counted because they arrived after the cut-off date.
Those ballots were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to the elections office the afternoon of the Friday following the Democratic and Republican primaries. State law requires that election officials have ballots in hand by noon the Friday after the election.
In the wake of that episode, state Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington) told the GazetteLeader she would be amenable to changing state law, allowing ballots to be counted if they arrived by the close of business on the Friday following the election. Because any action would have to be taken up in the 2025 General Assembly session, it would not impact the timeline for the 2024 election.
