CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Turnout for Tuesday’s general election has been robust in both Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

As of 4 p.m., Charlottesville Registrar Taylor Yowell told Cville Right Now that 7,327 people had voted in person in the city Tuesday. That’s in addition to the 10,603 voters who cast early in-person ballots in the city. Those numbers don’t include mail-in or absentee ballots, and the polls don’t close until 7 p.m.

In the 2024 Presidential election, about 23,000 people voted in the city.

As of 5 p.m., Albemarle County Registrar Jonell McFadden told Cville Right Now that 24,270 people had voted in person Tuesday. The busiest part of the day came between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. when some 11,000 voters cast ballots. There were also 23,810 ballots cast through early in-person voting in the county.

In all, 67,514 voters cast ballots in Albemarle County in 2024, a presidential election.

Inside the polling places, voters made their choices in the U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Warner and Republican challenger Bert Mizusawa, the U.S. House of Representatives race between current 5th District Rep. John McGuire and his Democratic challenger Tom Perriello, three proposed amendments to the Viriginia constitution and a potential 1% additional sales tax levy to fund local school capital projects.

Even with the strong turnout, foot traffic was steady but not congested across various polling places in the city and county Tuesday morning, with very few lines.

The lack of lines could be contributed to a much larger early voting turnout than the 2022 midterms. In all, 10,603 people voted early in Charlottesville as of Monday, up from 5,985 in 2022, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. In Albemarle, 28,310 ballots were cast early, up from 17,234 in 2022.

This year’s elections saw federal poll watchers in Charlottesville, election observers sent by the Department of Justice.

According to Yowell, the presence of the monitors has been coming for some time, ever since the 2017 Unite the Right rally.

“Charlottesville has been on the list to come to for quite some years, ever since 2017. They did not end up doing any poll monitoring during the 2020 general election because of COVID,” Yowell told Cville Right Now. “Charlottesville had not been monitored before, so it was our time.”

City Managing Director John Maddux told City Council on Monday that the presence of the monitors was related to reports of militia activity and voter intimidation in the area.

“That’s part of what was said in that letter,” Yowell explained. “They said Charlottesville’s been on the radar since 2017 and in 2024, they said that there was a militia presence in central Virginia.”

In response to an inquiry from Cville Right Now, a DOJ spokesperson sent back a link to an online press release, which said the monitors, which have been sent to localities all 50 states, will be checking for compliance with the federal voting right statutes that fall within the DOJ’s jurisdiction.

Aside from the monitors, volunteer from local contingents of the Republican and Democratic Parties were present outside polling places in the city and county. Del. Katrina Callsen even made an appearance at the Albemarle Dems’ tent at Woodbrook Elementary.

The local political parties were not the only people looking to catch voters’ attention. In Charlottesville, political science students from the University of Virginia conducted exit polls at multiple polling places, asking voters to fill out a quick survery as they left.

In Albemarle, many schools set up bake sales in support of Parent Teacher Organizations in local schools, many of which served as polling places. A social media post by Albemarle County Public Schools Family Council indicated there were at least five bake sales occurring at polling places in the county, all of which benefited local PTOs.

Voters in the Jack Jouett District of Albemarle were also met with volunteers seeking signatures to remove the district representative on the School Board, Dr. Kate Acuff. The petition, which was launched in August, is seeking 476 signatures in order to petition a Circuit Court judge to remove Acuff from her position under Virginia Code.

The group that organized the petition is led by Phil Riese, Chairman of the Albemarle Republican Committee. At Albemarle High School, the petition was being shared by volunteers at the party’s tent.

Each polling place was littered with signs outside, advocating for all four candidates as well as voting yes or no on the three amendments and the sales tax increase.