US early voting opens in Virginia as Trump renews doubts over ballots

Early voting has opened in Virginia and is rolling out across other US states ahead of the November 3 election. The contest will test control of Congress as Donald Trump keeps questioning voting methods and officials urge public confidence.

In Short

• Election officials say voting systems are prepared, accurate and secure nationwide
• Virginia opens in-person voting first, with other states expanding access soon
• Rising fuel and grocery costs are deepening voter anxiety this autumn

In-person voting for this year's US midterm elections begins on Friday, starting the final six weeks before voters decide who they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, the prolonged war in Iran and other major issues.

Election administrators say they are prepared and confident the vote will be accurate and secure. Even so, President Donald Trump has continued efforts to cast doubt on some voting methods and reshape how US elections are run through court challenges, a wide federal search for non-citizen voters and pressure on election officials to share sensitive voter data.

Friday marks the start of early voting in Virginia. Voters in a few other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, can also cast absentee ballots in person, usually at a local election office or voting centre. Wider early voting is due to begin in those and other states over the coming weeks.

The November 3 election includes votes for governor and state legislatures in most states and will decide whether Republicans keep their majorities in the US House and Senate. If Democrats win back Congress, it would change the course of the final two years of Trump's term and likely lead to investigations and other oversight efforts.

The start of early voting comes at a time of deep anxiety among many Americans over rising petrol and grocery prices, the war in Iran, the risks linked to artificial intelligence technology and Trump's tough immigration enforcement campaign. It also follows an unusual wave of mid-decade redistricting for the US House, which began after Trump urged the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas to redraw its congressional map to help the party. California and other states later followed. Research shows that 1 in 10 Americans this autumn lives in a different congressional district than in 2024. Those partisan efforts are expected to continue before the 2028 elections after a landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this year weakened the federal Voting Rights Act's protections against racially discriminatory redistricting.

As early voting approached, Trump remained focused on efforts to assert federal control over election administration, even though the Constitution gives states and, in some cases, Congress the power to run elections. The Supreme Court this week rejected Trump's bid to restrict mail ballots, but several other administration efforts to influence the voting process and examine state voter rolls for illegitimate voters are continuing. Trump has for years raised the spectre of widespread non-citizen voting in US elections, and he has done so again this year. However, even as his administration says hundreds of thousands of people are illegally on voter rolls across the country, research continues to show that non-citizen voting is exceptionally rare.

David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said he would not be surprised if the president continued "his disinformation campaign and his attack on election officials". But, he added, despite that and other challenges, "ultimately the process will hold as it has in past years." Voting rights advocates have urged people to cast mail ballots early this year, partly because of concerns that recent changes in US Postal Service operations could delay postmarks being applied to ballots. "Voting early, whether in person or by mail, is good for all of our communities because it gives voters options, eases lines on Election Day and can even mean faster results," said Hannah Fried, co-founder and chief executive of the voting rights group All Voting Is Local. At a press briefing on Thursday, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon urged people not to be influenced by stories that raise doubts about election operations. People would be able to vote "just like they always have," he said. "I just want to reaffirm that Minnesota's elections are fundamentally free, fair, accurate, honest and secure," he added.

With early voting now beginning in some states and set to expand in others, the US election campaign has entered its final stretch, with control of Congress, state offices and confidence in the voting process all at the centre of the contest.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends