Democrats in Arlington (not surprisingly) are moving toward the general-election season with a strong advantage in party affiliation, at least based on one metric.
Currently, 70 percent of those Arlington voters who have opted to be placed on the permanent absentee rolls are Democrats, according to figures reported April 11 by county election officials.
Only about 9.5 percent are Republicans, with the remainder independents/unaffiliated.
Virginia does not register voters by political party, but those who sign up to be on the permanent-absentee list do state a party preference (or lack of one) so they will receive the appropriate primary-election ballots. Arlington currently has about 13,000 voters on the list out of a registered-voter total of about 153,000.
The percentage of Republicans on the permanent-absentee list is lower than the vote totals the party typically garners in Arlington. In both 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump received 17 percent of the county vote.
One reason: Republican voters both in general and in Arlington tend to be more likely than Democrats to vote on Election Day rather than use early-voting options.
