Primary Day 2025

Jun 17, 2025 | 9:13 am ET

By Staff Report

Falling Creek Middle School served as a Chesterfield County voting precinct on primary day, June 17, 2025. (Photo by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury)

June 17 is primary day in Virginia, when voters will select Democratic nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general and weigh in on House of Delegates hopefuls and local candidates. Republicans aren’t having a statewide primary, and their ticket of executive branch nominees is set. For the first time in decades, Democrats are running candidates in all 100 House of Delegates races.

Three contenders — Republican incumbent Jason Miyares, and Democrats Jay Jones and Shannon Taylor — are aiming to become Virginia’s next attorney general.

Seven contenders are vying to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor: Republican John Reid and Democrats Alex Bastani, Ghazala Hashmi, Babur Lateef, Aaron Rouse, Victor Salgado and Levar Stoney. Learn more about statewide candidates’ priorities by reviewing their responses to our lieutenant governor and attorney general questionnaires, and check out key House races to watch here.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. If you’re in line when polls close, you can still vote. You’ll need to present an acceptable form of identification to vote, but if you don’t have one, you can cast a provisional ballot. Use this Virginia Department of Elections tool to find your polling place.

Check back here throughout the day for updates.

2:50 p.m.: Charlottesville joins Arlington in embracing ranked-choice voting

Tuesday’s primaries marked a milestone for Charlottesville, as the city rolled out ranked-choice voting for the first time — joining Arlington County as one of only two Virginia jurisdictions to adopt the reform.

The change, used for city and county board elections only under state law, allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Supporters say it better reflects the will of the majority and empowers voters to choose without fear of “wasting” their ballot.

Sally Hudson, executive director for Ranked Choice Virginia and a former state delegate who carried the successful legislation to make ranked-choice voting law in 2021, said that with the wide-field races on the state and federal levels, these contests demonstrate the need for ranked-choice voting. That includes the crowded Democratic primary for lieutenant governor with six candidates, and the party’s firehouse primary for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, with 10 candidates, on June 28.

“I hear from a lot of voters asking questions about who the frontrunners are and who they think can win so that they don’t waste their vote, and that’s exactly the problem that ranked choice is designed to solve,” said Hudson. “You don’t have to know how everybody else is going to vote to know how to use your vote in the most powerful way.”

In 2023, Arlington became the first locality in Virginia to adopt ranked-choice voting. However, the new system wasn’t needed on Tuesday because Board of Supervisors member Takis Karantonis, the incumbent, only faced one challenger.

Arlington has conducted three ranked-choice elections, and the county board recently extended its RCV program through 2025. Loudoun County and the city of Falls Church are among the localities considering reforming their voting methods.

Election results from Virginia’s primaries, including those from Charlottesville, will be determined after 7 p.m.

“The rollout here in Charlottesville just makes the case that there’s more communities that are embracing this method like Arlington,” Hudson said. “Having more places shows that we’ve got proof points of how to do it well, makes a big difference.”

11:26 a.m.: In Henrico, voters name police reform, education and civic engagement as priority issues

Voters slowly trickled in to Hermitage High School in Henrico Tuesday morning, where election officers say primary day is off to a slow start. Henrico resident Adam Ballantyne cast ballots for the candidates he felt could address important issues like public safety, education and boosting civic engagement.

Ballantyne said “police reform was a big thing for me,” and added that he was also looking for leadership that could help citizens prepare for and weather emergencies that impact public health, like the water crisis that left Richmond without drinking water for days in January.

“I had a lot of problems with the way that they dealt with the water (in) downtown Richmond, so someone, a candidate that’s going to make sure we’re okay in Henrico, (is) something I want to look for.”

Education reform is “very important to me as well,” Ballantyne said. “We really need to focus on that, especially with the way some things are going through the country right now.”

He also highlighted voter engagement as a factor he’s watching closely. “Well, I feel like it’s pretty shocking to me how low the voter participation is just in general for what I’m seeing around the country. So I feel like as a young person, it’s my duty to go out and go and make sure (I vote). Cause I really am a little bit unhappy that we’re so outnumbered by the Boomer generation, so I feel like it’s very important, as someone in the younger generation, (that I) at least try and make my voice heard as much as I can do it.”