This year vote early:
Virginia is now a “no excuse required” absentee voting state. This is essentially early voting. One may vote absentee 45 days prior to the election through the Saturday before the election.
Please see Absentee Voting explained on the State Board of Elections website.
Shout out to Evelyn Crotty for asking this question!
The Prince George Democrat 
I have already applied for the absentee ballot. Lillian or anyone, do you know if there is a way to see online that they have processed the application and later to check if they received the ballot back? I don’t want to wait too long to find out they aren’t sending one, and I want to be sure they got it back and are going to count it. (You’d think I’d know these things.)