Two Spotsylvania County Precincts Report Voting Machine Issues

Spotsylvania County reported that two precincts—Summit and Lee Hill (in the Lee Hill District)—the technicians "failed to use both designated cards to activate the machines, thereby directing all machines to utilize a single Congressional ballot" in the split 7th and and 1st districts. 

"It is important to note that this error will not impact the Presidential vote, the U.S. Senate vote or the ballot questions, but it did affect the option offered to the voters split between the two Congressional districts," said a news release from the county issued by public information officer Kathy Smith. 

When polls opened at the two precincts at 6 a.m., machines had incorrect Congressional district ballots on them. 

According to the county release, "It is estimated that about 48 people had voted on the wrong machine (in the wrong Congressional District) during that time," at the Lee Hill precinct. "Those votes were already cast. Once the problem was discovered, accurate ballots were distributed." The machines were corrected an hour later, the county said. 

In the Summit precinct, the release said an estimated 141 people had voted on the wrong machine until a fix was implemented 1.5 hours after the poll opened, according to the release. 

"The Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE) was notified of this occurrence. The Spotsylvania Voter Registration Office is keeping SBE informed," according to the release. "The count of all paper ballots will be included with the usual Statements of Results (SORs), which are official reports of activity at each polling place, and which include the final vote counts and numbers of voters." 

Both errors happened when the polls opened at 6 a.m. and were rectified between and hour and an hour and a half after polls opened, the release said.