The Richmond Electoral Board, as anticipated, voted last Friday at a special meeting to reverse course and open two more sites for in-person early voting that will begin next month 45 days ahead of the Nov. 7 general election for General Assembly seats.

Instead of remaining shuttered, the Hickory Hill Community Center in South Side and City Hall in Downtown this time secured board support to serve as early voting sites, joining the voting headquarters site, the Office of Elections at 2134 W. Laburnum Avenue in North Side.

All three sites will open Friday, Sept. 22, and operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, according to Voter Registrar Keith G. Balmer. The three sites will be open as well on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, the final two Saturdays before Election Day. None of the sites will offer Sunday voting, he stated.

The board led by Republican C. Starlet Stevens voted 2-1 at a July meeting to only open the Laburnum Avenue site to save money given the prospects for a small turnout.

But as the Free Press reported last week, the board had to hold this fresh vote after City Attorney Laura K. Drewry issued an opinion that the vote to keep the two satellite early-voting sites closed was illegal under state law.

City Council in 2020 had determined both Hickory Hill and City Hall would be satellite sites for early voting, Ms. Drewry informed the board, and she noted that board no longer had authority to change that decision.

The board does have authority to set days of operation and to the disappointment of voting advocates, declined to open in-person early voting on Sundays given the turnout projections.