Arlington election officials are expecting a slight dip in the use of mail-in ballots during this election cycle.
“I think mail voting will be down by maybe 10%,” predicted David Leichtman, a Democratic member of the Arlington Electoral Board.
The reason is likely connected to some residents’ fears that the Trump administration may intensify efforts to place new restrictions on mail-in voting.
The Arlington Electoral Board met Sept. 8 and its Falls Church counterpart met on Sept. 9, with both bodies discussing planning for the Nov. 3 election.
Gretchen Reinemeyer, Arlington’s elections director, said the number of county voters contacting her office to be removed from the mailed-ballot list has increased.
“While we might see two a week, we’ve now seen 10 a week,” she said. “I think those people shift to early voting.”
The discussions at the two Electoral Board meetings came before the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to impose new U.S. Postal Service mail-ballot delivery rules on a 7-2 vote on Monday.
At the Sept. 9 meeting, Falls Church Registrar David Bjerke said that even if justices upheld the new rules, Virginia likely would not have been impacted. But the administration’s efforts have caused broader concerns about interference in the coming election.
Concerns are “not completely baseless,” said Peg Willingham, a Democrat who chairs the Falls Church Electoral Board.
Falls Church election officials plan to mail ballots to voters who have requested them on next Monday or Tuesday. Approximately 1,000 ballots will go out.
Bjerke said those expecting ballots in the mail should wait until Oct. 1 to contact the elections office if they do not arrive. Those who do not want to return ballots by mail can use the voting dropbox located in the parking lot at City Hall, which is available 24/7 through Election Day.
Arlington voters also have the option of depositing mail ballots in nine dropbox locations around the county. Under state law, dropboxes must be emptied daily throughout election season either by teams of Electoral Board members or certified staff of the locality’s elections office.
At the Sept. 9 Falls Church Electoral Board meeting, talk related to mail-in ballots was part of a broader discussion about the potential of federal officials turning up at polling places.
Art DeCelle, a Republican member of the Falls Church Electoral Board, said he believed concerns about possible election interference are verging on hysteria.
“It’s overblown,” he said. “You have localities with their hair on fire telling people there’s a crisis.”
Willingham countered that election officials nationwide are “responding to the public’s concerns” about the rhetoric of the president and those working for him.
“People are scared,” she said. “Is it crazy to just prepare?”
Federal law only allows specific federal personnel from the U.S. Department of Justice to enter polling places as observers. Bjerke said that had happened during recent elections in Fairfax County, where Justice Department staff monitored for compliance with requirements that information be available in languages other than English.
Based on discussions with colleagues, Bjerke said Justice Department personnel had given Fairfax County election officials advance notice and conducted themselves appropriately.
He said it was doubtful Falls Church would find itself in the federal crosshairs on Nov. 3.
“Am I expecting anything? Not at all. I’m really not,” Bjerke said.
That said, “we need to be having discussions,” he said.
Any issues at the city’s three polling wards on Nov. 3 would be relayed by the election chief at the polling place to Bjerke’s office. As needed, he would then contact the city’s police chief and then sheriff.
“We do have procedures for dealing with these issues,” said Alan Wisdom, a Republican member of the Falls Church Electoral Board.
Wisdom recently represented the city at a regional meeting of the Virginia Electoral Boards Association, where issues related to Election Day took center stage.
“There was a lot of nervousness about ‘what if?'” he said.
Two Arlington candidate committees fined
Two recent political candidates, including a sitting School Board member, have been sanctioned by the Arlington Electoral Board for a failure to file paperwork in a timely manner.
The campaign committees of School Board member Monique “Moe” Bryant and sheriff candidate Wanda Younger each were fined $100 for failing to file necessary paperwork that had been due July 15.
“We’ve been unable to get them to either file their paperwork or close their accounts,” elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer said at the Sept. 8 Electoral Board meeting.
All three board members — two Democrats and a Republican — voted to support the fines in the amounts recommended by staff.
Though relatively token in nature, the sanctions are a signal that county election officials will be tightening up on campaign filings.
Younger in 2023 unsuccessfully ran in the three-way race for sheriff. She received 33.9% of the vote to 39.7% for incumbent Jose Quiroz, with James Herring receiving 26.4%.
At the Sept. 8 meeting, elections staff said individuals from Younger’s campaign committee had reached out that day to inquire how to file the delinquent paperwork. Electoral Board members opted to levy the fine even so.
Bryant was elected to the School Board in 2025. Election officials told Electoral Board members that attempts to contact her campaign by email and certified mail did not elicit a response about the filing.
New officers of election appointed
Arlington Electoral Board members on Sept. 8 appointed 35 new officers of election, who will be eligible to serve through Feb. 28, 2029.
On Sept. 9, the Falls Church Electoral Board appointed three new election officers.
Bjerke said that, recently, a number of applicants have come not from the city itself, but from the Falls Church area of Fairfax County.
Those submitting applications from outside the city are notified that they don’t live within its boundaries, in case any would prefer to submit applications in other localities. Many opt to keep their applications on file in Falls Church.
That’s legal, noted Electoral Board chair Peg Willingham, since voters registered in Virginia can apply to serve as an officer of election in any locality.
Willingham, joking, said she wasn’t surprised applicants gravitated to working elections in the city.
“We’re the best,” she said.
