Voters across the D.C. region are headed to the polls Tuesday, with ballot boxes open for races that reach from Congress to state offices and ballot questions. In Virginia, polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.; in Maryland and D.C., they are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
That timing is why searches for voting centers near me surge on election day. People trying to cast a ballot before work or after school need the hours, and in three jurisdictions the stakes are unusually broad: Maryland voters are choosing a governor, attorney general and eight members of Congress, while Virginia voters are deciding all 11 U.S. House seats and weighing proposed amendments on reproductive healthcare, same-sex marriage and voting rights.
In Maryland, the governor’s race is the headline contest, and Wes Moore enters Tuesday with momentum. A UMBC poll conducted in late September found Moore with a 27-point lead over Dan Cox, while the same state is also deciding whether to approve a redistricting question that would narrow a constitutional requirement for compact and connected districts to state senate and House of Delegates maps only. U.S. House districts would be exempt, which means the measure could leave future congressional lines untouched even as it changes the rules for state legislative districts.
That split matters because Democrats are talking about flipping Congress, but Maryland’s map is not offering them much immediate room. Rep. Andy Harris, an eight-term incumbent and the only Republican in Maryland’s eight-member congressional delegation, is facing Dan Schwartz in the 1st District, and Cook Political Report rated that seat solid R on Nov. 2. The other seven House districts in Maryland were rated solid D, and the 6th District, where Adrian Boafo and Chris Chaffee are vying for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer, is part of the state’s broader fight over control, not a near-term opening for Republicans.
Virginia brings its own set of questions to the ballot, but the congressional map there is already settled under boundaries adopted in 2022 after a mid-decade redistricting effort was struck down by the state’s supreme court. Sen. Mark Warner is running for his fourth term in Congress and has said it will be his final term, adding another layer to a ballot that mixes federal races with social-policy amendments. For voters trying to find voting centers near me on Tuesday, the answer is simple: get there within the posted hours, because the only thing moving after that will be the count.
