Dear John,
This is my last update for you before Election Day. Polls open at 6 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday, November 7) all across Virginia and stay open until 7 p.m. This is a long email, so here's the call-to-action:
Reply to me if you can volunteer to knock doors, make phone calls, send texts or greet voters at the precincts tomorrow. That's it. That's all that's left to do!
For my local crew here in SD-30 (western Prince William County, the City of Manassas Park and the City of Manassas): make a plan to vote now: at what time will you vote, how will you get there and will you bring anyone with you? (If you need a ride to the polls, just reply to this email and my team will ensure you get one.)
With that, here's what's up:
1) I can't even begin to express my gratitude for our staff and volunteers alike who knocked on more than 13,000 doors in just two days this weekend! We had so many groups and individuals come in, I can't possibly name them all -- just thank you so much for being a part of it!
2) I know for a fact that our Saturday field effort directly translated into voters casting ballots because I personally spoke to voters that afternoon in Georgetown South (City of Manassas) who immediately made plans to vote in Old Town before the 5 p.m. deadline.
3) Saturday was incredibly busy for me. I marched in the Veterans Day parade in Old Town Manassas, launched a huge canvass from our Manassas HQ, knocked doors in Georgetown South and then a community right next door (where, fun fact, the singer of the metal band A Sound of Thunder lives), drove out to the woods in Haymarket to launch another huge, rural canvass, drove back to Manassas to finish knocking, and then greeted Maryland Governor Wes Moore for a rally with our staff and volunteers that night at HQ. I also did two broadcast news interviews with NBC-Washington and WUSA9 (our CBS affiliate).
4) On Sunday, I launched another canvass at noon and focused my own field efforts along Euclid Avenue in Manassas Park, where again and again I spoke with voters who made a plan to vote Tuesday by determining what time of day worked best for them and how they planned to get to City Hall.
5) Altogether, there are six early voting reports we'll see when results start coming in during the evening: early in-person voting from Prince William County, the City of Manassas Park and the City of Manassas and absentee (mail-in) voting from each of those three localities. If our modeling is indeed prologue, then it's likely we'll have the upper hand in five of those six reports -- a sweep in the cities and an advantage in mail-in ballots from Prince William County with a close contest for in-person early votes from the county. We won't know for sure until the votes are actually counted Tuesday.
6) Through the end of early voting Saturday, 24,946 people voted, or about 30% of the total number of ballots cast prior to redistricting in the 2019 SD-13 election, which included a big portion of the new SD-30. Once the three localities' registrars receive the mail-in ballots that arrive today, it's possible 25,000+ ballots will have been cast before Tuesday. (Manassas Park is seeing 2021-level early voting turnout, which was a statewide election year. That bodes well for us going into Tuesday.)
7) Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday in order to be counted. We encourage any of you who still have a ballot to drop it off yourself today at your registrar's office. Otherwise, you can either drop it off at your precinct on Tuesday or you can discard it and cast an Election Day in-person ballot instead.
8) ALSO: Same-day voter registration is a thing now in Virginia. If you're in need of that (or know someone who is and can pass this along to that person), what you'll do is show up at your polling site Tuesday, fill out your info during check in, and cast a provisional ballot. Once election officials can verify you've met all requirements to legally vote, then your ballot will be counted.
9) The Rs had two right-wing outside groups do their dirty work for them in the mail late last week, as foretold to us four weeks ago:
-One group sent out at least two mailers telling people to call my personal cell number (exactly one voter did -- and he's not voting Republican. The only other call I got was from a business owner who lives outside of the district and now we're getting lunch together after the election);
-Another group sent out at least three fake positive mailers that played into tropes about transgender people while reminding people that your local transgender legislator is, in fact, transgender (six times in one mailer, in fact!) while instructing people to call my office number, to which a grand total number of zero people did. Congrats... or something.
Anyway, that -- let's very professionally go with "nonsense" -- aside, my team and I are out in the field until dark today and then we're switching to phone banking, so we'll not only be getting the word out about why people should vote Democratic tomorrow but we'll also be on the look-out for any last-minute dirty tricks, which happened during my first campaign on this day in 2017. (Fun fact: Election Day 2023 is the same date it was six years ago.)
With that, it's doors time. I've personally knocked on more than 4,000 doors this campaign (which is how I've earned myself a super fancy Aircast on my left foot after the sole of one of my blew out over Labor Day weekend) and have a couple hundred left in me between today and tomorrow.
It's time to win again, Virginia. I'm ready. Let's go make it happen.
Warmly,
Danica
