When Might We Know the Results in Virginia on 11/3?

When might we know the results in Virginia on 11/3?? See below, for a pretty good explainer by VPAP. Key points:

• “[I]t’s a pretty good bet that if you want to be assured you the outcome of most races, plan on staying up past 11 p.m. on Election night.”
• “It’s possible the outcome of many local races and some congressional elections may be known early in the evening.”
• “[T]he Department of Elections issued guidance that all localities must stop counting mail ballots at 11 p.m. on Election Day begin the process of reporting the results of the early ballots have been counted to that point.”
• “Local officials will return Wed am and resume counting any untabulated mail ballots. Those results will not be released until Friday afternoon.”
• “Local officials must consider any mail ballot delivered by USPS by noon the Friday after the election. This will set off the release of a second round of results starting Friday afternoon.”
• “This means we won’t know the results of any race that’s too close to call until Friday afternoon — at the earliest.”

By the way, I’m told that huge Fairfax County (population: 1.2 million) has been doing “pre-processing” of early ballots, so that Fairfax County will be able to report all of the (hundreds of thousands of) votes that are cast early. And when that enormous slug of overwhelmingly Democratic votes comes in, it’s quite possible that Virginia’s going to look a very nice shade of (deep) blue. 🙂