Hanover County recently completed a major renovation to the Wickham Building, home to the county’s department of elections, ahead of Virginia’s 45-day early voting period opening Friday, Sept. 18.
Officials celebrated the approximately $5 million project last week at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Hanover’s administrative campus on County Complex Road.
Henry Supervisor Sean Davis, the board’s chair, framed the project as an example of the county’s continued investment in services that matter to its residents.
“This facility gives our elections team the space and resources they need to do their jobs while providing our voters with a more accessible and efficient experience,” Davis said at the ceremony.
The renovations include dedicated storage for voting machines and election equipment, upgraded office space and expanded training areas, improvements to the building’s HVAC systems, and renovations designed to enhance the functionality and appearance of the facility.
A centerpiece of the renovated facility is a dedicated early voting center — the county’s only early voting precinct ahead of Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Hanover General Registrar David Nichols told VPM News the addition will greatly improve procedures throughout the early voting period.
“We can fit a whole lot more voters than our previous space,” Nichols said. “We can process more voters at the time, and hopefully, that’ll encourage more voters to participate.”
Nichols took over as Hanover’s registrar at the beginning of July after the departure of longtime registrar Teresa Smithson, who retired in June after more than 15 years of service.
Nichols comes to the county with a background as a state election director and legislative director in West Virginia and an elections services manager for the Virginia Department of Elections. He also worked for voting machine vendor Clear Ballot prior to taking the Hanover job.
Despite the county’s limited number of early voting locations, Hanover residents have been active early voters during the past several election cycles. Nichols presented data to the Board of Supervisors last week that shows how active the county is during the early voting period.
During the 2025 gubernatorial general election, 90,060 voters were registered in Hanover and 60,500 showed up to vote — about 25,000 of whom voted early. And roughly 24,000 people cast early ballots during April’s redistricting referendum.
Nichols said he expects a similar turnout this fall, if not more
“In every single district, we’ve increased voter registration, and our office is always looking for additional ways to get eligible voters onto the voter rolls,” Nichols said.
Nichols said the department has already begun testing its voting machines to ensure everything is running smoothly ahead of the start of early voting.
“The most important thing voters need to know about this project is they still have a place to cast their early voting ballots,” Nichols said. “It’s just the other end of the building.”
He added that the county is also actively recruiting more poll workers to man the county’s 37 polling locations on Election Day. The county currently has about 200 poll workers; the goal is to reach approximately 310 by November.
