Polls are open across Virginia for all 140 seats of the General Assembly.

Early turnout has been strongest in competitive Senate races in Newport News and in Loudoun County, as well as House races in Prince William County and Petersburg. But, it's only a small fraction of the electorate; about one percent of registered voters and about 10% of the expected turnout.

This story was reported and written by Radio IQ

Wes Bellamy at Virginia State University says these off-off year elections usually have really low turnout.

"This isn't a presidential election year. This isn't a gubernatorial election year," says Bellamy. "So, when you are looking at local and state races, historically the turnout is lower. So, that also leads to why we see lower turnout, unfortunately, with some of the early voting numbers that we've seen thus far."

But, Alex Keena at Virginia Commonwealth University says he expects turnout to be way higher this year than in previous off-off year election cycles.

"These used to be really sleepy elections, even a few years ago where hardly anyone would ever turn out. And now, these have turned into these nationalized elections," Keena says. "The irony is that the whole reason that we’re supposed to have these odd year election cycles is because we are supposed to insulate ourselves from national political forces. But the exact opposite is going on."

And here's some news you can use – campaigns track which voters have already voted. So, if you want the direct mail to stop arriving in your inbox, go ahead and cast your ballot now.

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