I just got off the phone with Donna Patterson (Virginia Beach Director of Elections/ General Registrar). She explained that their “poll books” required an unexpected update first thing this morning.
This resulted in poll workers not being able to track who had voted and who had not. The poll staff was able to see the voter in the system but could not mark them off as “voted”.
This early group of voters in the morning was given a “provisional ballot” and asked to vote and seal their vote in an envelope. This was an emergent decision made by the Board of Elections.
Unfortunately, these early provisional ballot votes will not be counted until Thursday (with grand totals on Friday). There has been a team of vendors who has had to go to each of the 100 polling locations and update these “poll books” to enable regular voting to occur.
The transition started around 0930 with most locations being back to normal operations by now. Please be patient as the Department of Elections is working to have each polling station functioning correctly and to have each vote count.
I will keep watching, will follow-up, and will update you if something changes. The Department of Elections is planning to communicate their progress through multiple press releases today. Thank you for voting and for being aware of the voting process and poll proceedings.
