RICHMOND, Va. -- As the ballot counting is underway, the Virginia Democratic Party is allowing more tellers to count votes for the VA-4 Congressional Democratic Primary, hoping to speed up the process.
On Wednesday, the party announced that the five original tellers counting ballots could be relieved and replaced by others.
The ballot-counting process started around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. At 5 p.m., coordinators said they were nearly halfway through counting the more than 26,000 ballots cast in the firehouse election Tuesday.
“This was a very quick process, but we’re exceptionally pleased with the turnout that we had yesterday. I mean, 26,000, that’s incredible. I believe that beat’s 2016’s turnout and that was a state-run primary," said Liam Watson, a press secretary with the party.
Each of the four candidates, state senators Jennifer McClellan and Joe Morrissey, former legislator Joseph Preston and Tavorise Marks, were allowed to have at least two observers watching the process unfold.
There were eight total polling locations in the special election when there are normally more than 200 when this congressional election is run by the state.
Leaders of the party said that because this kind of election is unprecedented, they didn't expect so many Virginians to turn out and vote.
"We have every person counting things twice, we don't want any incidents of a ballot getting lost under a desk, or oops, as I shuffled it from one place or the other, something got misconstrued. So, we do have a small room and a limited team of people, but that's to make sure that there is as few hands as possible touching these ballots and so that we can get it right," said Alexis Rodges with VA Dems.
A nominee must be named by the party by 5 p.m. Friday.
