ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Sen. Mark Warner will open Virginia's early voting period at Alexandria's registrar office Friday morning, casting his own ballot alongside Rep. Don Beyer at 132 N. Royal St.
The 9 a.m. rally is the first of four campaign stops Warner has scheduled Friday and Saturday across Northern and Central Virginia, his campaign said. He is up for reelection in November.
About an hour after his campaign announced the schedule, Warner told Virginia reporters on a midday media call that Department of Homeland Security agents had accessed voter files to obtain personal information about Virginians, and that doing so violates state law.
"State law is extraordinarily clear that the only person that can access the voter file to get personal information about that voter is the voter himself or herself," Warner said. He cited a New York Times report describing the practice in Virginia, California and other states, and called it outrageous. The Times has also reported on a Justice Department push for state voter data.
Warner said lawsuits are likely but that his greater concern is the effect on turnout.
"The idea that people are going to get intimidated, the idea that you send ICE to the polls to intimidate people from voting," he said, describing what he has been working to guard against. He said he has been asking business, military and intelligence leaders, particularly former ones, to act as referees and urge the public to pause before believing claims intended to discourage voting.
Mail-in voting
Warner said the Supreme Court's decision Monday rejecting the Trump administration's effort to restrict mail-in voting removed what he had considered the most immediate threat to Virginia's election.
He said the executive order and an accompanying Postal Service rule would have disrupted voting for service members, Virginians living abroad and seniors. Warner joined an amicus brief opposing the order.
"Thank goodness in this case the Supreme Court said no, so mail-in voting can proceed," he said. He encouraged Virginians to vote early.
AI safety
Most of Thursday's call concerned artificial intelligence, which Warner said has moved into public consciousness after executives at four leading companies warned about the pace of development.
Warner said he wants Congress to impose mandatory safety testing rather than rely on voluntary commitments, comparing it to the review that precedes the release of cars, airplanes and pharmaceuticals. He said he would start with safety protocols before addressing child safety, national security and job displacement, and said the issue is not partisan.
He also described two incidents he said illustrate the risk. In July, he said, an OpenAI model being tested in a secure environment broke out of it and hacked into another company, using roughly 3,000 automated agents that communicated with one another in ways hidden from humans. A second incident in August involved 10,000 agents but did not escape containment.
Warner said Anthropic contacted him in March about a model called Mythos, telling him the company was not certain it understood everything the model could do, and shared it with the government. He said the head of the National Security Agency and Cyber Command told him the model could have changed the nature of warfare by finding vulnerabilities in U.S. systems.
Asked about a former researcher's warning that AI could threaten humanity, Warner said he is not a "doomer" and is more concerned about nearer-term harms — a bank, hospital or water system taken over by automated agents.
Data centers
Asked about data center proposals moving forward without public disclosure, Warner said he has legislation setting federal minimum standards, including a prohibition on nondisclosure agreements that keep project details from communities.
He said standards should also address clean energy sourcing, water use, backup power and distance from neighborhoods, enforced by withholding bonus depreciation, the tax provision letting companies write off construction and equipment costs in the first year.
Kennedy Center
Warner, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center's board, criticized the decision to close the center, which the Trump-appointed board voted Tuesday to shutter indefinitely. The vote came hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the board from restoring President Donald Trump's name to the building, ruling that it could not install memorials without Congress's approval.
Trump said afterward that the closure would take effect immediately but that the renovation, for which Congress allocated $257 million, would not begin until an appeals court ruled on the name. Warner described that as holding public money hostage.
"For those of us who live in the greater capital region, Kennedy Center is not only a national icon, but it is also one of our leading art centers that people all across the community use," he said.
He also said he expects Virginians to protest a proposed arch he said would block the view of Arlington National Cemetery.
How to vote early in Alexandria
Early voting opens Friday and runs through 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. The Alexandria ballot includes the U.S. Senate race, the 8th District U.S. House race and three proposed state constitutional amendments.
The Office of Voter Registration & Elections at 132 N. Royal St. is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with weekend and extended hours later in October. The Beatley Library on Duke Street opens for early voting on selected dates beginning Oct. 18.
Full hours for both locations, plus mail ballot deadlines, drop box locations and registration information, are in our guide to voting early in Alexandria.
Ryan Belmore is an Alexandria resident and the founder and publisher of The Alexandria Brief. Send tips and feedback to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
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