FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Local elections workers across Virginia are scrambling to get almost 150,000 voters into the system after a big glitch with the state elections IT system.
It's the second time in weeks that the state's delivered a big chunk of registrations late.
Some local registrars are steaming mad.
Early voting places are already crowded, with election day just a week away, and now some voters are arriving at elections offices to find there's no record of their registration.
"Very frustrating," said Eric Spicer, the Fairfax County General Registrar. "I'm the exact opposite of happy. Yesterday was Halloween. We expected some treats. Not this kind of trick," he said.
Voters who registered or changed their addresses at the DMV this summer apparently had their registrations caught in an software glitch at the Virginia Department of Elections.
The state on Monday forwarded 149,000 of those registrations to local elections officials, and they're scrambling to keep up.
"I believe the Virginia Department of Elections is functioning as bad as it ever has. Worse than it ever has," said Spicer. "I don't think it's purposeful. It's just a series of mistakes that have been handled very, very poorly."
In Fairfax County, 20 extra part-time staffers are racing to enter the data. Spicer said they're dealing with about 11,000 unprocessed motor voter applications. In Alexandria, the number is 2,800. In Prince William, 6,000. In Loudoun, 45-hundred.
It's a total, between the tranche of stalled registrations on Monday and another one earlier in October, of almost 260-thousand voters statewide....
All in an election with some very close races.
"Democracy is always at risk when we take it for granted," said Jim Selzer of McLean, who was voting Tuesday. "I think it's very important because of what's going on in our country, how much strife there is," said his wife, Mary Louise, a retired nurse. "One person, I've seen it, makes a difference," said voter Peter Sitnick.
The state elections commissioner thanked local registrars for catching the problem, and said all the effected voters are able to vote.
Even if there's a problem on election day, in 2022, for the first time in Virginia, you can register same day, and cast a provisional ballot.