Election Day In Prince William: Ballot Scanners Malfunctioning

Last updated at 11:55 a.m. Tuesday

PRINCE WILLIAM, VA — Election Day 2020 is here in Prince William County, with voters getting the chance to vote in the presidential election, along with House races.

A large percentage of voters in Prince William County have already voted by mail or in-person absentee.

On the ballot in Prince William are the presidential election, U.S. Senate and the congressional House races depending on what district you live in. Two state constitutional amendments are also on the ballot.

At least two polling sites in Prince William County reported ballot scanners were not working Tuesday morning. The problems were occurring at Tyler Elementary in Gainesville and Battlefield High School in Haymarket, NBC4 reported Tuesday morning. The county’s elections office printed new ballots and sent additional equipment to the sites, they said.

“Affected voters will have their ballot counted either by tallying these ballots by hand or rescanning in the newly deployed equipment. The Office of Elections is reassuring all voters that their ballots will be counted,” the elections office told NBC4.

At 11:45 a.m., Prince William County said the ballot scanning issue at the two polling sites has been resolved. "All ballot-scanning is fully functional across all 93 polling sites, and all ballots will be counted," the county said.

Polls will be open until 7 p.m. For those voting in person on Nov. 3 in Prince William County, you can check your polling place at vote.elections.virginia.gov.

An acceptable form of identification is required to vote in person, but it no longer has to be a photo ID. Examples of accepted IDs include a Virginia driver's license or DMV-issued photo ID, U.S. passport, and copy of a utility bill, paycheck or other government document showing the voter's address.

Below are the candidates on the ballot for House seats in Prince William County:

Member House of Representatives, 1st District

• Qasim Rashid - Democrat
• Robert J. Wittman - Republican

Member House of Representatives, 10th District

• Jennifer Wexton - Democrat
• Aliscia N. Andrews - Republican

Member House of Representatives, 11th District

• Gerard Connolly - Democrat
• Manga Anantatmula - Republican

In the 1st district, Wittman, the incumbent, said that the coronavirus crisis has led to unprecedented economic disruption.

"When the economy begins to open up, we need to be prepared — we need to support our small businesses and prepare potential employees to fill jobs as they become available. We must continue to incentivize rehiring, remove regulatory barriers to job creation," Wittman said on his campaign website.

Rashid, Wittman's challenger, said the 1st Congressional District, along with the rest of the nation, needs "a robust posture on healthcare, with the scaling up of testing being of utmost importance."

"It is wide scale testing that will effectively restart the economy, short of a COVID-19 vaccine," Rashid said on his campaign website.

In the 11th Congressional District, Rep. Gerard Connolly (D) is running for re-election against Manga Anantatmula (R).

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Connolly, in a letter to constituents, noted that two areas that have been left unaddressed by Congress are aid to state and local governments and saving the postal service. "As a former Chairman of Fairfax County, I’m especially cognizant of the needs of local governments," Connolly said.

Connolly said he has a call with leaders from local government in the 11th District to hear first-hand about the problems they are facing. "They’re not only facing massive unexpected direct costs from treating coronavirus, but are seeing their own tax bases utterly decimated," he said. "Failing to shore up state and local governments finances now will lead to unnecessary budget cuts, job losses, and a deeper recession."

On her website, Anantatmula said she has refused to take any government assistance for her son while he was growing up even though the Fairfax County Public School offered free lunch during his school days. "My husband and I worked hard to pull ourselves up," she said. "We believe in individual responsibility, self-reliance, and hard work; and we taught these same values to our son."

Anantatmula also said on her website that politicians "are shutting down schools for political reasons and it has nothing to do with COVID." "School closure disrupts all of this. Reopening schools — while taking precautions to protect students, teachers, staff, and families — invest in our children," she said.

In the 10th Congressional District race, Wexton, the incumbent, believes that the most pressing issue right now is getting this virus under control and supporting our families and small businesses in need.

Andrews, Wexton’s Republican opponent, contends that the “coronavirus lockdowns have devastated businesses in Virginia’s 10th and across America.”

Stay tuned to this post throughout the day for live updates from the ground as well as election results as they start rolling in Tuesday night. And check back on this story Wednesday morning for more updates.

For more information, visit the Prince William County Office of Election website.