Registrar says new early-voting center will ease heavy turnout; county still needs poll workers

David Nichols, Hanover County's general registrar, briefed the board on recent election statistics and the new early-voting center. He said the county had 90,060 registered voters in November 2025 and that about 60,500 voted — a 67.2% turnout — and that the office expects about 21,000 voters to use the new early-voting center this November.

"We certified costs of $114,603. The state reimbursed us 70,543 and that left us both right around 44,000 that the county had to absorb," Nichols said, describing the funding for a recent special election and the state's reimbursement formula. He explained the state uses a formula that factors registered voters and actual local costs and that Hanover bore about 38% of the total in that instance.

Nichols reviewed upcoming operational dates: logic-and-accuracy testing for early-voting equipment on Sept. 14 and Sept. 18, early voting starts Oct. 9 at the new center, voter-registration and absentee-by-mail deadlines on Oct. 23, and the first Sunday voting day on Oct. 19 (two weeks of early voting through Oct. 31). He also noted an increase in registered voters over the decade and that the office is still short of its target number of poll workers (about 200 of 310 currently recruited).