Voting is well underway in every jurisdiction in Virginia. But, one part of Virginia is seeing a higher turnout than others.

House District 71 includes James City County, Williamsburg and parts of New Kent County on the peninsula. It also has something special; the highest number of early ballots cast so far. That’s according to data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. The race features incumbent Republican Delegate Amanda Batten.

This story was reported andwritten by Radio IQ

"So, in James City if you look back over the years, you'll see that we have a very high number of early voters relative to all the other localities in the Commonwealth," Batten says. "So, this is a trend in the making, and I think that you're just seeing more momentum now."

Until very recently, Republicans have been skeptical of the 45-day window of early voting. Earlier this year, the Republican House voted to shorten that period. That’s an idea that has some support among some Democrats, including the Democrat who is challenging Batten. Jessica Anderson says 45 days is too much.

"I know that there is a lot of legislation put forth to try to shrink it to two weeks. I don't agree with that," says Anderson. "But, I do think that a 30 day with the continuation of two definitive Saturdays and then a required Sunday as well, not this you can choose to do one if you'd like in every district, would be ideal."

Batten says voting should begin at the beginning of October. Anderson says voting should begin 30 days before the election. Whichever candidate wins this race on the peninsula could end up voting on some version of that in the next session of the House of Delegates.

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