The first day of early voting in D.C. began on Friday — but at some polling places, no one was there.

       At Bald Eagle Recreation Center in Ward 8, poll workers taped up “Vote Here” signs all along the large patriotic mural of an eagle, but for the first half-hour of early voting, not a single voter arrived. At Turkey Thicket Recreation Center in Ward 5, often one of D.C.'s busiest polling places, Ward 5 Council candidate Vincent B. Orange strode up to the crowd of volunteers waiting for voters and boomed, “Hey, where’s all the people?”

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       This election is an experiment in the District: It’s the first time the city has mailed a ballot to every registered voter for a primary election, after trying it out in 2020 during the Ward 2 special election and later, the general election. In the District, where the vast majority of voters are Democrats, the party’s primary is the main event. And this year — the first primary with universal mailed ballots — it seems that some voters are participating in that event from the comfort of their homes.

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       As of Thursday, 16,864 voted by mail and 6,548 used drop boxes, according to the Board of Elections — a fraction of the 114,890 ballots cast in total in the 2020 primary or the 89,513 cast in the 2018 primary, the most recent to be held in a nonpresidential election year. But many election volunteers predicted that voters would either hold their ballots and cast them by drop box rather than in person, or vote on Election Day — June 21.

       Of course, some still came to the polls for the first of 10 consecutive days of early voting on Friday, driven by their desire for change or their eagerness to reelect their favorite leaders. The ballot includes the mayoral race, in addition to attorney general, council chairman, and council seats for wards 1, 3, 5, and 6, as well as an at-large seat.

       Gail Perkins, one of 35 people who had voted at Turkey Thicket by 11 a.m., said her concern about rising violence led her to the polls. “It’s just devastating for me and all mothers,” said Perkins, who wore her Spingarn Class of 1972 T-shirt to mark her lengthy history in D.C. “It’s just absurd how we’re losing our babies. Who would have thought we’d be coming to a time like this?”

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       While Perkins wishes that Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) would make crime her top priority, which she doesn’t think has happened, she still felt strongly that Bowser would be a better choice to address the problem than her main challengers, council members Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) and Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8). “I know that she has the experience. Both of the Whites, I don’t have anything against them, but I don’t think they have the experience to run a city,” Perkins said.

       She was less certain who to vote for to represent her ward on the D.C. Council, and she questioned candidate Gordon Fletcher when she saw him outside the polls. “You a Washingtonian?” she asked. (The answer: No, but he has lived in the District for about 20 years.) Then: “What do you think about the crime? What’s up with that?” Fletcher said he would work on social-emotional learning and job training to help prepare young people to avoid crime, and Perkins nodded approvingly. “Absolutely. They don’t have any alternatives,” she said. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”

       Julia Bainum, a D.C. teacher, came to vote against Bowser after a difficult school year in which the mayor championed keeping schools open after last year’s pandemic closures. “A lot of teachers have felt not super supported by her. We didn’t really have enough of a plan for what reopening would look like. It just felt chaotic,” Bainum said.

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       She voted for Robert White, noting that he advocated for closing schools during the winter omicron surge if they hit certain coronavirus metrics. “A break would have been helpful. A lot of people got covid,” she said.

       Still, while the Washington Teachers’ Union endorsed White, Bainum said she was “not especially” excited about him. “He has a boarding-school proposal that I’m not sure how I feel about. I’d rather focus on the schools we already have.”

       In Columbia Heights, hospitality worker Frank Mills, 36, voted for Trayon White, saying he has been impressed by his leadership as a Ward 8 council member. “His work within his ward, which happened to be some of the lower-privileged and more disadvantaged neighborhoods and communities in Washington, D.C., shows his commitment,” Mills said. “If he had a broader scope or a wider advantage to better our city, I truly feel like he would do so.”

       His Columbia Heights neighbor, Valree Smith, 61, felt that both Trayon White and Robert White were too unproven. “Quite frankly, the other people on the ballot do not have enough history of running things,” she said. She voted for Bowser.

       Early voting continues through June 19.