Absentee voting is way down in Virginia this year compared with 2008, and that could be reduced further by Hurricane Sandy, which shut down polling places across Northern Virginia and the Eastern Seaboard on Monday.

About 246,000 Virginians have cast ballots so far this year. That’s 100,000 fewer ballots than were cast at this point four years ago and just half of the total cast in the 2008 election, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan election watchdog.