Virginia Wants To Change Election Years

Summers here, the roads are packed, and accidents can happen in an instant. If you've been injured in a car accident, don't get stuck fighting the insurance companies alone. Fight back with one call to Azari Law. Call 888-8-2-8-Hurt. That's 888-8-28-Hurt. At Azari Law, we've proudly fought for the DMV community for over 15 years. I'm attorney Lauren Kaleckis, born and raised right here in the DMV, and my team and I are ready to fight for you. Injured, don't wait. Don't settle for less than you deserve. With offices in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, Azari Law is standing by to help accident victims get the justice and compensation they deserve. This summer, protect yourself and your family by knowing who to call when life takes an unexpected turn. Call 888-8-28-Hurt, and let Azari Law fight for you. Follow us on social media at azari.law. That's A-Z-A-R-I-Law. The days are longer, the calendar's filling up, and I want to feel as good as this beautiful summer weather. That's why I've been loving Grooons. It's one daily pack of gummies that covers my greens, vitamins, minerals, and even has six grams of prebiotic fiber. So I don't need to juggle a complicated wellness routine on top of everything else. They taste amazing. They're easy to toss my bag on the go. Plus, they're vegan, gluten-free, and H-S-A-FSA-eligible for reimbursement. Save up to 52% off with Code Podcast at Grooen's.com. That's Code Podcast at Grew. and S.co. Spring is finally here, and it's that time of year when plans start becoming real. Trips are getting booked, the calendar is filling up, and the energy is shifting. Make this season count. By starting right now, you'll hit summer already feeling more confident speaking and understanding a brand new language. Whether you're prepping for a dream vacation, reconnecting with your family heritage, or just finally checking learn a new language off your bucket list, Rosetta Stone is the way to go. They've been the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years because they skip the boring stuff. There's no memorizing random vocabulary lists or leaning on chunky translations. Instead, their intuitive method helps you naturally absorb the language by connecting words and visuals to real-world meaning. It's about learning in context the way language was actually meant to be learned. As a trusted expert with millions of users, Rosetta Stone offers 25 different languages, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and more. It really is the ultimate tool for genuine growth. Ready to start learning a new language this spring? Visit rosettastone.com slash RS10 today to explore Rosettastone and choose the language that's right for you. Go to Rosettastone.com slash RS10 now and begin your language learning journey. 634 News Radio, WRVA, Richmond's Morning News. Gary Hess in for Rich Herrera this week. Today is July 21st. It is a Tuesday. Hope your day is off to a good start. Going to be time to get going to work.

I have a match known as empty coffee cup itis. And that will be remedied at the top of the hour break before we chat with Michael Phillips. But interesting developments have come out in the last couple days where there is some talk in Virginia of changing the election cycle from odd numbered years to even numbered years. to sink up with federal elections. You know, Virginia, you know, the governor's race this past year in 2025, there were only two states that had governor elections. And one of them was Virginia and one of them was New Jersey. And it was, there were no gubernator, there were no Senate seats up for grabs. Those are all an even numbered years. House of Representatives. And so. You know, we had House of Delegates elections here in Virginia, and of course the Democrats had a huge wave of wins in that. They swept all three statewide offices as well. But that was, they got a lot of national attention and a lot of national money because of it was the only game in town. And there was a lot of motivation to move against President Trump. So now the debate has been renewed to align our elections with the federal schedule. Several arguments in favor of it include giving voters a break where you really only work, you know, going to the polls every other year, which I don't see because, you know, voting is not that taxing a thing to do. The other thing is they believe it would create increases in voter turnout and participation. But on the other side of the coin, the national elections would have, the other side says the national elections would have more influence on state elections and that, you know, Virginia'd get lost in the shuffle a little bit. There are two sides to this. It's going to be debated. But the options that they're looking at would, could mean, depending on which options is chosen, that the current governor, Abigail Spanberger, would have an extra year or would be short at a year based on the plans. There are two options that are in play. Option one would align the gubernatorial election with the federal midterms, which would mean in 2028, House of Delegates and State Senate elections, and then along with the presidential race, House of Representatives, and some Senate receipts. In 2030, would be the House of Representatives, the midterm elections for whoever gets elected president in 2028. part of the Senate, the House of Delegates again, House of Delegates, House of Representatives every two years, and then the governor's race would be in 2030. Option two is to have the governor's race in a presidential year, and that would mean that Governor Abigail Spanberger's term would be one year shorter, and that would have President, all the House of races, House of Representatives, House of Delegates, some Senate and the governor, all in 2028.

And then in the year 2030, the state Senate. So basically the state Senate elections would be opposite whenever the governor's election is and the House of Delegates would be up every two years. So those are the two options being looked at. I guess option three would be just leaving it the way it is. So there is that. By the way, all of this talk is great, and this group may decide to forward something for General Assembly consideration, but transitioning the state election schedule would require amending the Constitution, which is a multi-year progress process, that you see right now with the, you know, and that is... That multi-year process is what the Democrats tried to circumvent to redraw the lines and gerrymander the congressional districts. And they circumvented that, went too fast, and that's why I got overturned. But, you know, there's going to be three referenda on the ballot in November about the Constitution. It has to be passed a couple of times by two different General Assembly sessions, and then it goes to a referendum with the voters, and there are the three that are on the ballot this fall, codifying abortion rights into the Constitution, one on felon's voting rights, and one on same-sex marriage, and those will be on the ballot coming up in November. But this is what would be required. When you talk about the turnout numbers, last year's race for governor, about half of Virginia's registered voters came out while in the presidential election in 2024. Turnout was at about 70%. Out of 50 states, we are one of five that hold odd-numbered years elections. Virginia and New Jersey are in the year after the presidential election. The year before the presidential election, it's Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi. So late last week, there was a meeting of a General Assembly committee, a panel. that took a look at this, and they are going to meet again, and that meeting will be on August 4th. And at that point, a recommendation will be made. And move forward, the General Assembly would have to weigh in, and then it would take a constitutional amendment, like I told you. The committee says there's been some consolidation. done by states like North Carolina and others. Some lawmakers worry the consolidation will have, mean national politics have too much influence over local races. The other side of that coin is, even though there's no election,

National politics, you know, the... Summers here, the roads are packed and accidents can happen in an instant. If you've been injured in a car accident, don't get stuck fighting the insurance companies alone. Fight back with one call to Azari Law. Call 888-828-Hurt. That's 888-828-Hurt. At Azari Law, we've proudly fought for the DMV community for over 15 years. I'm attorney Lauren Kaleckis, born and raised right here in the DMV, and my team and I are ready to fight for you. Injured, don't wait. Don't settle for less than you deserve. With offices in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, Azari Law is standing by to help accident victims get the justice and compensation they deserve. This summer, protect yourself and your family by knowing who to call when life takes an unexpected turn. Call 8888-8-28-8-28-8-2-8. hurt and let azari law fight for you follow us on social media at azari dot law that's a z a r i dot law The days are longer. The calendar's filling up, and I want to feel as good as this beautiful summer weather. That's why I've been loving Grooons. It's one daily pack of gummies that covers my greens, vitamins, minerals, and even has six grams of prebiotic fiber. So I don't need to juggle a complicated wellness routine on top of everything else. They taste amazing. They're easy to toss my bag on the go. Plus, they're vegan, gluten-free, and H-S-A-FSA-eligible for reimbursement. Save up to 52% off with Code Podcast at Groo. That's Code Podcast at GRUNs. Spring is finally here, and it's that time of year when plans start becoming real. Trips are getting booked, the calendar is filling up, and the energy is shifting. Make this season count. By starting right now, you'll hit summer already feeling more confidence speaking and understanding a brand new language. Whether you're prepping for a dream vacation, reconnecting with your family heritage, or just finally checking learn a new language off your bucket list, Rosetta Stone is the way to go. They've been the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years because they skip the boring stuff. There's no memorizing random vocabulary lists or leaning on chunky translations. Instead, their intuitive method helps you naturally absorb the language by connecting words and visuals to real-world meaning. It's about learning in context the way language was actually meant to be learned. As a trusted expert with millions of users, Rosetta Stone offers 25 different languages, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and more. It really is the ultimate tool for genuine growth. Ready to start learning a new language this spring? Visit rosettastone.com slash RS10 today to explore Rosettastone and choose the language that's right for you. Go to Rosettastone.com slash RS10 now and begin your language learning journey. The feelings that many Democrats have about President Trump energize them in Virginia to vote.

for Abigail Spanberger. And Abigail Spanberger was favored in that election anyway. So, you know, some Republicans, Democrats have differing views on this. It might save money in the polling process. But it's an interesting idea. I personally have always liked the fact that, you know, in those odd years, Virginia's kind of been in the spotlight. And I don't think, you know, I don't think it holds water the idea of giving voters a break. I mean, I don't think it's, you know, I just don't think it's an arduous task to go to the polls and cast your ballot, especially now that the Democrats have set it up to where you have 45 days of early voting. Go when it's convenient for you. Election Day is almost a misnomer anymore. It's the election month and a half. You know, you think about it. Primary day here in Virginia is August 4th. And early voting has been going on for almost a month. And, you know, there are a handful of contested races. But, yeah, it would be interesting. But the two, basically, if this were to move forward, the governors, they said, I don't know that they could get it passed two different General Assembly sessions and a voter referendum in time for the 2028 election. I don't know if that can happen. And I don't know which option they're going to endorse. But... It would definitely be interesting because turnout in midterm years is still not as good. The turnout is never going to match the presidential election year. You know, that is when you're going to get the most turnout because the presidential election is what creates the most interest among the people. I am planning to get Delegate Tom Garrett to weigh in on this when we chat coming up in the 8 o'clock hour this morning. But the effort is ongoing to have Virginia lawmakers' way ending these off-year elections. So we'll see what happens. But once again, this is the very beginning. This is the talking stages. But, you know, there's a couple of, you know, I look at both sides of this. The amount of national money that came into Virginia for this governor's race, you know, bothers me a little bit. That may not happen as much in the presidential election year. But the other side of that coin is, you know, sometimes it's good to be in the spotlight. And sometimes it's not. So we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of all of this. But...

Virginia's, there's a lot of issues in Virginia. There's the early voting, there's the mail-in ballots, there's the just how things have, and then, you know, voter ID requirements, there's a lot of things surrounding elections that need to be addressed, need to be looked at. And this is something that is currently under consideration. And once again, August 4th, the committee's going to come forward with a recommendation. Be interesting to see what they come up with. But we are going to step aside and move on. We'll be back in a moment, news radio, WRBA. Summers here, the roads are packed, and accidents can happen in an instant. If you've been injured in a car accident, don't get stuck fighting the insurance companies alone. Fight back with one call to Azari Law. Call 888-828-Hurt. That's 888-828-Hurt. At Azari Law, we've proudly fought for the DMV community for over 15 years. I'm attorney Lauren Kaleckis, born and raised right here in the DMV, and my team and I are ready to fight for you. Injured, don't wait. Don't settle for less than you deserve. With offices in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, Azari Law is standing by to help accident victims get the justice and compensation they deserve. This summer, protect yourself and your family by knowing who to call when life takes an unexpected turn. Call 888-8-28-Hurt. 8-88-8-28-Hurt and let Azari Law fight for you. Follow us on social media at azari.law. That's a Z-A-R-I-Law. Nerds! Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast. Ever Google a money question and end up 12 tabs deep with 12 different answers? This podcast is your shortcut back to clarity. NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast breaks down financial decisions with a team of trusted journalists. They explain the why behind decisions like investing, home buying, and choosing credit cards with clear research-backed insights. No jargon, no misinformation. Make your next financial move with confidence. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast on your favorite podcast. app. Presented by Team Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join Team Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Data centers don't wait, and neither should your supply chain. From power and connectivity to racks and critical power, Graybar brings the products and the experience data centers need now. And with deep inventory and logistics expertise, we keep projects moving from first delivery to final install. With hundreds of locations and a nationwide delivery fleet, we help you bring facilities online, on time, and on budget. Yep, Graybar does that. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies. Just because we finished rewatching the Office does not mean we're going anywhere. Every Wednesday we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the Office and our friendship with brand new guests. Plus, you can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. So follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcast.