RICHMOND, Va. -- Election Day in Virginia got off to a smooth start Tuesday. State election officials said one reason for the smooth start was likely because one-fifth of Virginia voters cast their ballot early.
Department of Elections Commissioner Chris Piper noted a few Tuesday morning hiccups:
- Spring Run Elementary School in Chesterfield experienced a power issue, but Dominion Energy quickly responded, and because the voting machines have battery backups, voting continued as normal.
- Charles M Johnson Elementary School precinct in Henrico opened 10 minutes late due to a medical issue, but then voters were allowed inside.
- Also in Henrico County, there were reports of at least two ballot scanners being jammed. As of 11 a.m., election officials were working with technicians to fix the issue, but they say not to worry because your vote will still count.
“If a machine is jammed like that and becomes inoperable, temporarily, what happens is the ballots are collected still into a locked box, a monitored box, where they are kept until the machine is up and running," Piper said. "And then the election officers will once again run the ballots through the machine, so everyone can be assured that their votes are counted.”
Election results can not start being calculated until after the polls close at 7 p.m., and Piper noted those results should be coming in pretty quickly, as most localities will be counting mail-in votes that have been pre-processed, as well as early in-person votes first.
CBS 6 spoke with Henrico and Chesterfield County election officials Monday, and they say they will still be counting in-person Election Day votes first.
Another election briefing is scheduled for 8 p.m. CBS 6 will have a team there to bring you the latest.
