The primaries earlier this month took place with a new Virginia law in effect: a wider radius around polling places where it’s illegal to carry a gun.
The expansion of the radius from 40 feet to 100 feet went smoothly in Arlington, election officials say.
The legislation went into effect on July 1, and the prohibition applies from an hour before elections begin to an hour after they conclude. The first elections with the new rules in place were the Aug. 4 Democratic and Republican primaries, with a larger test of the requirements coming in the run-up to the Nov. 3 general election.
“We don’t anticipate much of an impact,” elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer said at the Aug. 11 Electoral Board meeting, adding:
“It has not been a concern in Arlington. We aren’t used to seeing guns at polling places or outside polling locations.”
The 100-foot prohibition on guns applies not just to polling places on Election Day, but also to early-voting sites, places where recounts occur, offices of local registrars and sites hosting Electoral Board meetings.
The new law contains some limited exceptions, including for law-enforcement personnel, licensed security guards and individuals on their own property within the gun-free zone.
The legislation, patroned by Fairfax County Del. Irene Shin (D), passed after several alterations on largely party-line votes of 62-35 in the House of Delegates and 21-19 in the Senate. Both bodies agreed to a technical wording tweak proposed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D).
Shin’s measure expanded gun-free zones around polling places that had been in place statewide since 2021. The patron of that measure was then-Del. Mark Levine (D-45).
