News Flash

Nov. 5, 2020 - Although Hampton and Virginia reported preliminary results on election night, some votes are still being tallied. Absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day will be added to the totals through Friday at noon. Also, election officials are reviewing election results for accuracy and completeness. Local officials will certify the local results on November 10. That’s when the results will be official. This is what happens every year; what’s different this year is the number of absentee voters (more than 13,000) and in-person early voters (32,366). Voters can use the state Board of Elections website to see if their votes were counted — but not yet.

Right now, people who voted early in person, or who were sent an absentee ballot, will show as having voted in the election. That is so the information can be sent to the precincts on Election Day to ensure that no one can vote twice. (That’s why, if you received an absentee ballot and then tried to vote at your polling place, you had to cast a provisional ballot. They’re checking to ensure you only voted once.)

Poll workers manually recorded who voted on Election Day. Those names won’t get added electronically to your voter history until some time AFTER the vote is certified. When the lists are fully updated, you can view your voting information here:  https://www.elections.virginia.gov/registration/view-your-info/. Verify your identity and then look for "Voter History."

Also, people who are checking their ballot status using the myballot program the state adopted this year may find that their ballot isn’t listed as being delivered to the registrar. That program required the Post Office to scan ballots each step along the way. Sometimes, that didn’t happen, which creates gaps in the tracking. (https://ballotscout.org/partners/5a8f1161-23a0-4fa0-8ec9-3e090e97e9b3/va-search)