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What you need to know BEFORE heading to the polls

Posted at 12:38 PM, Nov 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-07 16:14:38-05

RICHMOND, Va. -- Officials with the Virginia Department of Elections are doing last minute preps before polls open at 6 a.m. Tuesday. The Commissioner of Elections said the main thing was making sure voters were prepared before they headed to the polls.

If you haven’t voted since the last presidential election, this year, you have to bring a valid voter ID to your polling location.

Acceptable forms of valid identification:

Virginia driver’s license

Virginia DMV-issued photo ID

United States passport

Employer-issued photo ID

Student photo ID issued by a school, college, or university located in Virginia

Other U.S. or Virginia government-issued photo ID

Tribal enrollment or other tribal photo ID

Virginia Voter Photo ID card

You should also familiarize yourself with the referendums or local races in your city or county.

You can look up a sample ballot based on your district on this website.

All Virginians will vote on two constitutional amendments.

One is about the right to work and the other entails property tax exemptions for spouses of certain emergency services providers.

The commissioner also said people should expect to wait in lines because Virginia has seen record-breaking participation so far for this election.

"We're up to 5.6 million registered voters in Virginia. We have had over 600,000 people submit for an absentee ballot, so we're expecting a lot of activity tomorrow. A lot OF turnout tomorrow,” said Edgardo Cortes, the Commissioner of Elections.

Polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. As long as you’re in line by 7 p.m., you will still be able to vote.  Officials say the best times to vote are mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

Get more resources on Election Day 2016 here.

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