The Team

Each state’s chapter of The Polling Place is led by one to three regional directors.

Esha Lohiya | Director of Virginia

Esha is a junior at Oakton High School. She is interested in various sciences as well as politics. Esha enjoys giving back to her community by hosting STEM workshops for local children and volunteering at hospitals and senior homes. Through The Polling Place, Esha wants to increase voter turnout, especially amongst young voters. In her free time, she enjoys reading, running, and spending time with friends and family.


Aditi Bhattacharjya | Virginia Research Team

Aditi is a junior at Oakton High School. She is passionate about public policy, law, and political philosophy. She pursues these interests through policy debate, Model UN, and various service-oriented organizations. Aditi hopes to increase voter turnout and political awareness through her work at The Polling Place, especially for historically underrepresented groups. Her interests aside from policy include linguistics and economics. In her free time, she enjoys bullet journaling, dance, and getting boba tea with her friends.

Felix Howton | Virginia Research Team

Felix is a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. He has a passion for politics and current events. Through The Polling Place, he hopes to make it easier to find non partisan information about local elections and to inspire others to participate in the electoral process. In his free time he enjoys play soccer, reading, playing video games and spending time with friends.

Sean Lacalle | Virginia Research Team

Sean is a junior at Westfield High School. Sean is deeply fascinated by public policy and constitutional law. Sean is active in his community giving back mostly through Scouts, and Sean is especially engaged in environmental conservation projects. Through The Polling Place, Sean wishes to present candidate information in a non-partisan way. In his free time, Sean enjoys watching football and playing video games.

Interested in joining our team? Apply here!