LEESBURG, Va. — It’s been two days since voters hit the polls for primary day in Virginia, but the work continues for election staff members who are still processing mail-in ballots.
In Loudoun County, residents requested more than 16,000 mail-in ballots. As of Thursday afternoon, 7,371 have been returned. An online dashboard shows 7,020 have officially been counted, meaning they’ve gone through a multi-step process before they’re scanned.
Voting by mail has become a more popular option in Virginia since the pandemic. Before 2020, the average number of mail-in ballots was only 2,000.
Elections and Voter Registration Outreach Coordinator Samantha Shepherd said there’s more of an emphasis to ensure voters that their ballots are counted.
“Our job as an office is to the voter,” Shepherd told WUSA9. “We want to make sure voters know their votes are secure and accurate and that those things are top of mind to us, as well as transparency.”
When WUSA9 visited the office on Thursday, staff received more than 460 ballots from the post office. In the secured “mail receiving room,” a large white board keeps a daily tally of envelopes.
There are at least two workers on the table opening envelopes. For this primary, they create two stacks for Democrats and Republicans. They open the outer envelope and make sure the information was filled out correctly.
If not, the office contacts the voter by mail, email and phone to let them know their ballot is missing information, which in many cases is social security details.
The next step requires other staff members to mark the ballots by scanning the printed bar code on the side. They match the information on a database to “mark” them before they’re placed in secure boxes.
“We tape the box shut and seal it,” Shepherd explained. “They put the date that they went through those ballots, they put their initials on it and the total number of ballots enclosed. That box goes into a secure storage before it’s processed.”
A bipartisan team on the second floor removes the actual ballot sealed in the inner envelope for the first time. Prior to that, workers match the data at least twice with another system.
“They separate the envelope and ballot into two different piles,” Shepherd added. “They turn it upside down and they don't know who you voted for so it's that private.”
The ballots are placed in trays with a filled-out paperwork detailing who worked on it and how many are included. Assigned chiefs review the paperwork and box them in a locked closet before they’re all scanned at the end of the day, officially designating the ballot as counted.
It’s not required to give a reason for an absentee ballot. You can request to be on a permanent absentee list but must file another piece of paperwork to be removed from that list.