Election polling site in Arlington, Virginia.

Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU

Nearly a month after the start of the commonwealth’s early voting period, residents of multiple areas in Northern Virginia have reported receiving election mailers with incorrect polling place information.

Some registered voters in Clifton, Dumfries, Haymarket, Herndon, Occoquan, Quantico, and Vienna received notices that contained incorrect information about where they should cast their ballots, according to the Virginia Commissioner of Elections, Susan Beals.

“Following the redistricting process, the Department of Elections mailed over 6 million voter notices to all registered voters in the Commonwealth. A second mailing of 31,000 sent to voters whose original notice did not include their town district number contained wrong polling place locations,” Beals wrote in a statement on Friday. “Due to a printing issue, some notices contained wrong polling place locations. The Prince William County and Fairfax County Registrars are sending out corrected notices to all affected voters immediately.”

In a statement, the Virginia Department of Elections elaborated that in printing the notices, “the voting location was kept static on the print job and not changed for each voter,” leading to the discrepancies. The number of affected residents in each jurisdiction is as follows, per the statement:

Dumfries:         3029

Haymarket:       1079

Occoquan:        878

Quantico:          367

Clifton:             199

Herndon:          13,387

Vienna:            12,169

Registrars in Prince William County and Fairfax County will send out corrected mailers on Monday, the Department of Elections continued, and the department will cease its relationship with the vendor that made the printing error.

“These notices will not affect any voter’s ability to vote early because the notices only contained incorrect voting information for Election Day polling places,” the statement reads.

Virginia State Sen. Jennifer Boysko and State Del. Irene Shin, both of whom represent the town of Herndon, issued a joint statement expressing their disappointment in the mistake and listing the correct polling places to be used by their constituents.

“This is not the first major incident during this important election season. I urge the Department of Elections to work quickly to restore the public’s faith in our election system,” Boysko wrote.

Shin called on Beals and the Department of Elections to “immediately issue corrections to the voters in the town of Herndon,” as well as apologize and explain how the error occurred.

This is only the latest issue affecting Virginia voters. Earlier this week, voters in Bluefield — in Southwest Virginia less than a mile from the West Virginia border — dealt with a similar issue, when some residents received voter notices with incorrect information, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported. And in early October, the commonwealth’s elections office sent more than 100,000 voter records to local registrars to process, blaming “intermittent network issues” for adding extra work to local offices’ plates just weeks before Election Day.

Last month, Attorney General Jason Miyares announced the creation of an Election Integrity Unit consisting of more than 20 attorneys, investigators, and paralegals that will ensure fair elections are conducted in the state. The unit will work in conjunction with the Elections Department and law enforcement to investigate and prosecute anyone who tries to interfere with elections. According to a press release, the establishment of the office is part of a plan to “restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth.”

A spokesperson for Miyares’ office told DCist/WAMU at the time that there has been little evidence of any election fraud taking place in the state.

Reports indicate early voter turnout in Virginia is currently on pace to surpass that of the 2018 midterm election. But it hasn’t reached the level of early voting during last year’s competitive gubernatorial race, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project.

The last day to vote early in-person in Virginia is Nov. 5. This is the first year residents can register and cast a provisional ballot on Election Day, Nov. 8.

Virginia voters can confirm their voting information on the Department of Elections website or by calling 804-864-8901.

This post has been updated with information from a Virginia Department of Elections statement.

Filed Under: general assignment, Northern Virginia, VAelections22,