Virginia Election Day 2022: Updates -- Pollbook Problems Slow The Process

By the Virginia Mercury staff

November 8, 2022

As Virginians head to the polls today, Mercury staff are covering how the election unfolds across the commonwealth.

On the Nov. 8, 2022 ballot: all 11 Virginia seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The big ones to watch:

• 2nd Congressional District: Democratic incumbent Abigail Spanberger v. Republican challenger Yesli Vega
• 7th Congressional District: Democratic incumbent Elaine Luria v. Republican challenger Jen Kiggans
• 10th Congressional District: Democratic incumbent Jennifer Wexton v. Republican challenger Hung Cao

Some voters are also casting votes for local offices like school boards and town councils.

Check back frequently for more updates on Election Day.

Key Events

32 mins ago

Pollbook problems slow voting in Richmond, Suffolk, Chesterfield and Nottoway

32 mins ago

Pollbook problems slow voting in Richmond, Suffolk, Chesterfield and Nottoway

By: Graham Moomaw - 11:26 am

A handful of Virginia localities were having problems Tuesday morning with electronic pollbooks used to check voters in, but state officials said those issues have not prevented anyone from casting a ballot in the midterm elections.

In an 11 a.m. press briefing, Elections Commissioner Susan Beals said the city of Richmond, the city of Suffolk, Chesterfield County and Nottoway County had to switch to paper backups due to problems with digital pollbooks used to verify voters’ names and addresses. Those issues may have slowed down the pace of voting in some areas, Beals said, but voters are not being turned away.

“Every single locality that has electronic pollbooks is required to have a paper backup pollbook on site,” Beals said.

The only other issue of note, according to the briefing, was a power outage at a polling place in Wythe County, which officials resolved in about 10 minutes by activating a generator.

Beals said the state had received no reports of voter intimidation as of late Tuesday morning.

This story was originally published by the Virginia Mercury. For more stories from the Virginia Mercury, visit Virginia Mercury.com.