Election Results 2020: Biden Wins VA: AP Reports

Last updated at 12:35 p.m.

VIRGINIA — Former Vice President Joe Biden is the projected winner in Virginia, as called by the Associated Press at 7:36 p.m.

Votes continue to be tallied on the Virginia Department of Elections results page after polls closed at 7 p.m. Absentee ballots, counted in each locality's central absentee precinct, started to show in the totals after votes from polling places were recorded. (See real-time election results from the Virginia elections office at the bottom of this story.)

Virginia is not considered a key swing state as it has been in past presidential elections. In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won Virginia with 1,981,473 votes to Trump's 1,769,443 votes. Former Barack Obama won Virginia in 2008 and 2016, although by a smaller margin than Clinton in 2016.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine noted that Biden's projected win in Virginia was called earlier than past presidential election races in the state.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and his predecessor Terry McAuliffe, who has been campaigning for Democrats in the state, celebrated Biden's win in Virginia.

According to polling tracked by RealClearPolitics, Biden edged Trump in all recent polls conducted in Virginia. In the most recent poll from Christopher Newport University, Biden has a 12-percentage point lead over Trump. The poll, conducted from Oct. 15 to 27, featured 908 registered Virginia voters who voted in the two general elections in the last four years or registered within the last six months. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

"Biden’s lead continues to illustrate Virginia’s solid shift left in presidential and statewide races," said Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, research director at the university's Wason Center. "The test on Election Day will be whether that shift holds in the competitive congressional districts that went to Democrats in 2018."

Outcomes of congressional and local races are also being determined. The Associated Press called the U.S. Senate race in Virginia for Mark Warner immediately after polls closed. The senior senator won a third term by defeating Republican challenger Daniel Gade. Warner, is a former businessman who served as Virginia governor from 2002 to 2006, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and won re-election in 2014. Gade is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and amputee who now serves as an American University professor.

In the congressional races called so far, incumbents have claimed victory. In Northern Virginia, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), has been projected as the winner of the 8th Congressional District, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) has been declared the winner in the 10th Congresssional District race, and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) was named the winner in the 11th Congressional District.

Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA) who represents Virginia's 1st Congressional District, has been projected as the winner to the seat he has held since 2007. Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) has won reelection in the 6th Congressional District, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) won in the 3rd Congressional District and Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA) won re-election in the 4th Congressional District.

On Wednesday, AP called the 2nd Congressional District race for Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), who won over the district's former representative, Republican Scott Taylor. The 7th Congressional District race between Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Republican challenger Nick Freitas has not been called. Republican Morgan Griffith is unopposed in the 9th Congressional District.

Virginia Secretary of Administration Keyanna Conner said in a news conference last week that results will be reported as they come in from precincts starting at 7 p.m. All in-person early voting and mail-in absentee voting will be reported in each locality's Central Absentee Precinct, but counting won't be limited to election night.

"We've given localities a cutoff time of 11 p.m. to stop processing absentee ballots for that evening," said Conner. "That means that localities at that time will still need to close out their machines and go through the normal end-of-evening process and then report those [Central Absentee Precinct] numbers on election night. Some localities may report earlier than 11 p.m., depending on the volume and timing of ballots returned.

Because counting will continue after election night, Conner said results could change in the days after the election. Counting of absentee ballots would resume on Wednesday, Nov. 4, and Central Absentee Precinct numbers will be updated after noon on Friday, Nov. 6.

At a news conference last week, Gov. Ralph Northam said Virginians shouldn't expect official results on election night.

The governor noted that election officials don't usually call elections on election night; news organizations have called races on election night. The governor said election officials certify election results under Virginia law. Local election boards are expected to certify results on Nov. 10, and the state board will certify results on Nov. 16.

"So I just wanted to remind everyone we're looking more at an election week than an election night, and that's nothing to be alarmed about," said Northam. "That is the process working as the law intended."

Even before Election Day, a large share of Virginia voters already cast their ballots. According to Chris Piper, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, 2.754 million Virginians had already cast ballots by Saturday. Nearly 1.8 million of these were in-person votes, and 956,000 were mail-in absentee votes.

"That's a total of 46 percent of registered voters have already cast ballots, 68.77 percent of our total voter turnout in 2016," said Piper.

Despite high numbers of Virginians voting through mail-in absentee ballots or in-person early voting, some voters turned out on Election Day.

"I just enjoy the process of coming in and voting in person," Arlington resident Daniel Miktus said about his decision to vote in person on Election Day at the Central Library precinct in Arlington.

"Combine that with that I figured everyone else would be voting not in person, so I figured I could walk right in and walk right out and that's exactly what happened.

Miktus, who said he voted for Trump, noted he felt safe inside the precinct from the coronavirus due to the plexiglass up between the election workers and voters and how they were handing out fresh pens to each voter.

If Biden wins the presidential election, Miktus said he would not be pleased. But he said he believes the presidential election does not impact his day-to-day life in a big way. "I'll just go on with my life," he said.

Shelly Skomra, a fourth-grade teacher in Falls Church, is a Republican but voted for Democrats in this election. She sees the pandemic as a serious issue, since her mother, a supporter of President Donald Trump, died from COVID-19.

But her voting decision is also based on character. She noted that her fourth grade students are aware of what's going on in the political realm.

"For me being a teacher is being a role model. This president is not," Skomra told Patch. "It's really hard these days to teach kids not to bully, to respect each other and not call each other names."

Ismail Buber of Reston didn’t have time to vote early, but he didn’t want to miss out either, so he made it out to the polls at Lake Anne Elementary with about an hour to spare. No particular issue had brought him out to vote. He was just doing his civic duty.

“Today’s the last day, I guess, so I finally made it. I’m so proud of it as a U.S. citizen,” said Buber, who has voted in every presidential election since becoming a citizen in 2000. “I think every U.S. citizen should vote.”

Bryce Wence, 24, also felt like it was his civic duty to vote.

“It’s my first time voting. I just wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “Honestly, I’m in the middle, but I picked the lesser of two evils. That was my opinion.”

With about an hour before the polls closed at the Herndon Community Center, Samiha Gdoura made it out to vote. Although she was aware that she could’ve voted early, she wanted to vote on Tuesday.

“We want to choose the right person for the presidency,” Gdoura of Herndon said. “It matters for all of us here and for the world.”

Jasmine Pierson of Herndon took a more pragmatic approach to her decision to vote.“I think our president is not doing a great job, and I’d like to make a change,” she said. “Neither of them is a great candidate, but I guess we can settle for the lesser of the two horribles, at least for me in my situation. They’re both terrible.”

An Ashburn resident who did not disclose his name spoke to Patch about his reason for not voting absentee.

"I’ve always voted on Election Day. I enjoy the tradition," he said.

The voter, who grew up in New York City, said he voted for Trump because he likes how the president is a “fighter.”

“He’s fighting for this country. I’m tired of politicians. I’ve never liked them. And he was a non-politician. He was a breath of fresh air.”“Why do I want Trump back for another term? Because he hasn’t finished the job yet," the voter said.

If Trump does not win re-election, “it will be like a kick in the stomach,” he said. “In my life, I’ve been working now for 40-plus years, when the Democrats were in power, I did very poor economically. I am in finance. Taxes went up. Good money was being thrown to bad projects. And I don’t want to go through that again, especially now since I’m getting close to retirement.”

Elmir Chobanzada, who voted in Ashburn, said he chose to vote on Election Day because it is tradition for him and that he prefers to vote in person. "Early voting and mail-in voting was a good idea, too, given the fact that we’re all suffering from the pandemic situation," he said. Chobanzada, who declined to say which presidential candidate received his vote, admitted he will be upset if his candidate loses the election. "We just need another four years to get it back," he said, noting that the economy is his biggest issue.

A Biden supporter from Ashburn, who declined to give his name, said he voted for the former vice president because he believes the presidency “is being disrespected right now.”“Our standing in the world is at the lowest it has been in a long time and I am not proud of where we stand right now,” he said.

Shahzad Mirza, a Pakistani immigrant who was voting in his third presidential election, cast his ballot for Biden.

"I'm looking for a better future for immigrants. That's why I voted for Biden," Mirza, an Ashburn resident, told Patch.

In a 9 p.m. news briefing, Piper thanked volunteers, registrars, law enforcement, emergency management partners for their work on Election Day. This year, over 20,000 people signed up to be election officers.

"When we were first dealing with the pandemic, we were reading headlines about whether we could hold elections in the midst of this pandemic, and I'm very proud of Virginia and the rest of the country for all that we did to get to today," said Piper. "It was a team effort, and all the work that we did paid off. And that was shown today in the smoothness of the election with very, very minimal problems, and at no time was voting hindered throughout the entire process."

In Prince William County, two polling places experienced ballot scanning issues earlier Tuesday. "Please note that the issue is resolved. All ballot-scanning is fully functional across all 93 polling sites, and all ballots will be counted," reads a county tweet.

Ashburn was the site of a dispute between Democratic and Republican Party volunteers over where they were setting up their tents and chairs in order to hand out sample ballots and literature. The elections precinct captain was able to calm the situation, although he plans to file an incident report with the Loudoun County elections office later Tuesday night.

Stay with Patch as election results come in.