Fairfax County Satellite Voting Locations Open — Voters can now cast their ballots at 13 satellite locations around Fairfax County, including the McLean Governmental Center, Providence Community Center, Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library, and Thomas Jefferson Library in the Tysons area. [Fairfax County Office of Elections]

VDOT Extends 495 NEXT Public Comment Period — The deadline for public feedback on the Virginia Department of Transportation’s I-495 Express Lanes Northern Extension Project has been extended to Dec. 4. The extension comes after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution asking the department to give more time for public input. [Virginia Department of Transportation/Sun Gazette]

Vienna Girl Among First Female Eagle Scouts in U.S. — Katie Hunter, a 13-year-old Vienna resident, is expected to become one of the first girls in the country to be awarded the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank when she is inaugurated as an Eagle Scout in February 2021. [Patch]

New Trees Planted in Blake Lane Park — “We planted some more trees in Providence this Saturday! Blake Lane Park is full of green life and pollinators. Thank you to all of the volunteers” [Twitter]

Tysons Tech Company Hiring Data Engineer — “IronNet is looking for a Principal Cyber #Data Engineer to join their passionate small business headquartered in Tysons Corner, VA but operating completely remote!” [Twitter]

Staff photo by Jay Westcott

The Fairfax County Government Center will open for in-person absentee voting tomorrow, a week earlier than the county originally planned to start holding Saturday hours for early voting.

Early voting locations were scheduled to start opening on Saturdays on Oct. 17, but the Fairfax County Office of Elections announced on Tuesday (Oct. 6) that it will commence Saturday hours this week instead to accommodate record numbers of early voters, who have faced long lines and extended wait times.

“The short answer is due to the large number of requests from voters, from elected officials, and my electoral board all asked that we consider if it was possible to provide an extra day of voting,” Fairfax County Office of Elections director and general registrar Gary Scott said when asked about the change.

Voters can cast absentee ballots this Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at the government center, which is currently the only place in Fairfax County open for early voting.

Additional relief from the crowds that have swarmed the government center since early voting began on Sept. 18 will arrive on Oct. 14, when 14 satellite voting locations open — almost twice the number of sites that the county provided in past years, according to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.

Satellite locations in the Tysons area include the McLean Governmental Center, Providence Community Center, Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library, and Thomas Jefferson Library.

Early voting hours at these locations are from 1-7 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and 9-5 p.m. on Saturdays. All sites are closed on Sundays.

Public health anxieties and the Virginia General Assembly’s auspiciously timed approval of no-excuse absentee voting have contributed to high levels of early voting around Northern Virginia.

The Fairfax County Office of Elections reported on Thursday that voters have cast almost 62,500 vote-by-mail ballots so far, a 40 percent increase over the total from 2016, the last year with a presidential race on the ballot.

As of Oct. 7, Fairfax has gotten about 18,000 in-person voters, with about 1,300 people showing up per day, according to Scott.

City of Falls Church director of elections David Bjerke told WUSA9 that the city has seen 100 to 200 voters coming in-person every day, and 5,337 people — 50% of the city’s voters — had either cast or applied for a mail ballot as of Oct. 6.

In-person early voting ends on Oct. 31, and the last day to request an absentee ballot by mail is Oct. 23. Absentee ballots must be hand-delivered to a polling location or postmarked by Election Day on Nov. 3, with Nov. 6 as the deadline for the Office of Elections to receive mailed ballots.

Scott warned voters against requesting a ballot by mail and then trying to vote in-person.

“Having requested a ballot by mail will slow down their process when they go in and try to vote in person,” Scott said. “They’re certainly welcome to do it. They just need to understand that it will take longer for them, once they check in, to actually vote than it would be to return the ballot, either by mail or putting it in one of our drop boxes.”

Staff Photo by Jay Westcott

Fairfax County is seeing record numbers of locals turning out to vote early, in some cases leading to long lines at polls.

The County is planning to open more locations starting Wednesday, Oct. 14, as millions of Americans nationwide vote early in the election.

Upcoming voting facilities in the Tysons area include:

• McLean Governmental Center (1437 Balls Hill Road)
• Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive)
• Tysons Pimmit Library (7584 Leesburg Pike)
• Thomas Jefferson Library (7415 Arlington Blvd.)

Staff photo by Jay Westcott

If you’ve been to absentee in-person voting and the lines have seemed particularly long, you’re not alone.

Fairfax voters have been lining up at 12000 Government Center Parkway to cast their ballots early and avoid election day crowds, only to find themselves in long lines with other early voters turning up in record numbers.

Some said the numbers seemed to swell yesterday after the debate, but Public Information Officer Brian Worthy said the numbers have been pretty consistent.

“At least to me, it doesn’t seem like the lines are any longer, and I’ve been here at the Government Center for every day of early voting since it began,” Worthy said.

Last night's debate leading to even longer lines in Fairfax County- with still no extra rooms opened to allow people to vote faster. Limit of 5 voters to voting room, where they have to fill out paperwork, get checked in then fill out ballot. Complete debacle.

— Ben Tribbett (@notlarrysabato) September 30, 2020

Worthy said COVID-19 precautions have made wait times longer than usual.

“Since the start of early voting on Friday, Sept. 18, we have had two polling places open in the Government Center, and… we’re limiting the number of people in at any one time for the safety of both voters and poll workers,” Worthy said. “Similarly, we’re keep the line outside because it’s safer for voters to wait there rather than inside the building. As result of COVID, voting is taking longer.”

A county employee at the location said despite the long lines, it was a fraction of what the line was like on previous days.

Two voters, Karen and James Shaver, said they watched the debate the previous night. They described it as “loud” but said it didn’t sway their vote.

In addition to the long lines, voters have endured harassment and attempts to keep people out of the building from supporters of President Donald Trump.

As you can see here they are blocking the entrance to the voting site. #EarlyVoting #VA #FairFax pic.twitter.com/KJ6fbLdP3G

— Anthony Tilghman (@AnthonyTilghman) September 19, 2020

Worthy said the lines should be alleviated by plans to open up satellite facilities for voting later this month.

“We’re opening additional early voting sites on Oct. 14,” Worthy said. “We’ll have 14 additional locations open that day (including the Government Center) with a total of 15 starting on Saturday, Oct. 17.”

Voting facilities in the Tysons area include:

• McLean Governmental Center (1437 Balls Hill Road)
• Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive)
• Tysons Pimmit Library (7584 Leesburg Pike)
• Thomas Jefferson Library (7415 Arlington Blvd.)

Jay Westcott contributed to this story

Job seekers have the chance to apply for a new seasonal gig. The Fairfax County Office of Elections recently announced it’s hiring more than 200 workers for the November election.

The positions came about because the elections office is expecting a significant rise in absentee voting this year, Brian Worthy, a Fairfax County spokesperson, told Tysons Reporter.

Applicants can apply to be considered for three various positions, according to the job listings.

About 200 people are needed to process mailed absentee ballots, starting around Sept. 28 and likely working until a few days after the election. Meanwhile, about 40 people will get hired to assist in–person absentee voters at satellite locations from Oct. 14-Oct. 31. A limited number of people are needed for the administration tasks like data input, which the job description did not include a timeframe for.

“Skills we are looking for are people who have attention to detail and basic computer skills,” Worthy said, adding that applicants must also be registered voters in Virginia. Other requirements and a detailed description of each position can be found online.

“For all positions, you are hired as a seasonal employee, paid hourly, and must go through a background check including fingerprinting. The work is seasonal with no benefits and is dependent on the election schedule,” the listing said, adding that most employees will be paid around $14 an hour. The opportunities are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“We are still in the hiring process so we don’t have a count of how many positions have been filled yet,” Worthy said.

Anyone interested in applying can fill out an online Survey Monkey form. Applicants shouldn’t be surprised if they don’t hear back right away, Worthy said.

“The hiring process does take some time, so people might not hear back immediately,” according to Worthy, who added that he encourages people to apply early so they will have plenty of time to complete the onboarding process.

According to Fairfax County’s website, there are also openings for local election officers. The county said that it’s received roughly 10 times the normal number of applications for the election officer roles.

Photo via Tiffany Tertipes/Unsplash

Updated 11:15 a.m. — Jonathan Shapiro, the president of Smith-Edwards-Dunlap Company, apologized in a statement, saying that the printing vendor is responsible for the “major error.”

“This mistake occurred because we incorrectly aligned a spreadsheet that matched the voter with their local election office,” Shapiro said, adding that CVI did not review the spreadsheet and that the printing vendor has taken steps to make sure mistakes are caught in the future. 

“This is not the level of work that SED and our partner, Quad Graphics, pride ourselves on. We have printed and mailed over 100 million vote-by-mail applications and voter registration applications without error and we are committed to the highest standards of quality control and excellence,” Shapiro said.

“In this mailing we fell far short of that goal. We apologize to CVI, to the staff at the affected local boards of election, and to the voters.”

Earlier: Be careful if you get a mailer from the Center for Voter Information, Fairfax County election officials say.

Fairfax County and City of Fairfax residents have been sharing on social media and to Tysons Reporter that they received the mailers from the Center for Voter Information, which have incorrect return addresses.

County officials are warning voters about the “inaccurate and potentially misleading mailing” that asks people to return them to the City of Fairfax.

The Center for Voter Information said in a statement that it is “working diligently” with local election officials to get the returned mailers to the correct addresses. Roughly 500,000 mailers included incorrect information, the voter registration group said.

“Mistakes in our programming are very rare, but we take them seriously, and our methods overall are extraordinarily effective,” the statement said, adding that it regrets “adding to any confusion” to voters as the November election nears.

“Please rest assured that we are working with local election officials in Virginia to re-direct the vote by mail applications to the proper locations, and will rectify any errors at our own expense,” the statement said.

The Virginia Department of Elections said that any applications that get sent to the wrong locality’s office will be sent to the correct office.

More from Fairfax County on the mailers:

This group is mass mailing pre-filled, absentee ballot applications to county voters without their request — and the mailer includes return envelopes to send the application to the City of Fairfax, not Fairfax County.

“This mailing is causing great confusion and concern among voters who have been contacting our office,” said Fairfax County General Registrar Gary Scott. “While the mailing may appear to be from an official government agency, the Fairfax County Office of Elections did not send it.”

The mailing is also confusing voters who have previously submitted absentee ballot applications themselves, Scott added. These voters are worried that their applications were not received, leading them to think they need to apply again.

Fairfax County is working with the City of Fairfax to ensure any applications received from the center’s inaccurate mailing will be processed by the county.

This is not the first time that mailers from the Center for Voter Information have confused Virginians.

The News Leader, a newspaper in Staunton, explained last year how organizations can obtain mailing addresses after the Center for Voter Information confused residents with a mailer about voter registration.

County election officials said that election information from the county will include a county seal on the envelope, along with the “Official Election Mail Authorized by the U. S. Postal Service” logo.

Fairfax County voters who want to return the Center for Voter Information applications should mail it to the Fairfax County Office of Elections (12000 Government Center Parkway Suite 323, Fairfax, VA 22035), Brian Worthy, a county spokesperson, said.

People who want to absentee vote by mail can apply online, which will allow them to track the status of their application, or vote in-person at 15 locations. Registered voters can expect their ballots to arrive after Sept. 18.

Photo by Element5 Digital/Unsplash, photo via mailer via Fairfax County

Yesterday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved creating 14 voter satellite offices.

The voter satellite offices will serve absentee in-person voters.

“The advent of no-excuse absentee voting [in Virginia] for the November 2020 Presidential Election is expected to significantly increase the number of voters choosing to cast absentee ballots in person,” according to county staff.

County staff noted that the expected voter turnout for the upcoming presidential election is why they suggest an increased number of voter satellite offices, adding that the county had nine locations for the 2016 presidential election.

The Tysons-area voter satellite offices will include:

• McLean Governmental Center (1437 Balls Hill Road)
• Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive)
• Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive)
• Thomas Jefferson Library (7415 Arlington Blvd)
• Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (7584 Leesburg Pike)

The voter satellite offices will be ready for the General Election on Nov. 3 and will be open from Oct. 14-31, according to county documents.

The locations would be open from 1-7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays.

The Town of Vienna’s election is underway, and voters have less than four hours to vote in-person or drop off their ballots.

As masked voters file into the Vienna Community Center or drive to the  Fairfax County Government Center to drop off their ballots in a special box, Tysons Reporter is exploring what civic duty looks like during a pandemic.

Voter turnout has typically fluctuated between 5% and 23% for the town’s elections for the last 20 years. But that may change this year.

“Traditionally, for municipal elections, it’s hard to get a good turnout,” Councilmember Howard Springsteen, who is running for the mayor’s seat, told Tysons Reporter.

Starting in March, Fairfax County officials took to social media to encourage Vienna voters to use the “disability or illness” box when requesting absentee ballots, hoping that mail-in ballots would decrease long lines for in-person voting.

The reminders worked. Vienna voters requested more than 3,200 absentee ballots, according to the town.

There are roughly 11,800 registered voters in the town, according to the state election department. If all of the absentee ballots are completed and submitted, that would put the voter turnout percentage around 27% — not including in-person voting.

“I think voter turnout will be higher than we’ve had in a while,” Mayor Laurie DiRocco told Tysons Reporter.

Signs of the times for voting in the time of a #pandemic. Voters will find these floor markers and signs at the polls in Vienna & Clifton today. Polls close at 7 p.m.#viennava #cliftonva #election2020 #covid_19 #COVID19 #socialdistancing #fairfaxcounty #virginia pic.twitter.com/Cw4wwP2LPr

— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) May 19, 2020

Voters weren’t the only ones urged to do their civic duty by voting from home.

DiRocco, who is retiring when her term ends this June, told Tysons Reporter on Friday that she asked all of the candidates to stay away from the Vienna Community Center today (Tuesday) to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

In previous years, it has been “very much of a social gathering,” according to DiRocco, who added that people would bring picnics and socialize with one another outside of the 40-foot distance line as people prepared to vote.

“I had reached out to the candidates and recommend we do not show up at the election,” DiRocco said. “All of the candidates agreed to that, which I thought was really good.”

But DiRocco sounded frustrated when she told Tysons Reporter that she received messages from people this morning “who were a little nervous” because they spotted mayoral candidate Pasha Majdi outside the Vienna Community Center.

“I don’t know what else to say at this point,” DiRocco said, stressing that it’s important to respect public health and safety concerns for voters.

Majdi told Tysons Reporter that he was about 300 feet away from the community center — “I could not throw a football from across the street.”

“We thought it would be a nice gesture to thank people for voting by waving from across the street, several hundred feet [away] from the polls,” he said.

The decision of whether or not to stand outside the polling place was never a dilemma before the pandemic, and it is not the only issue that candidates recently faced as Northern Virginia’s coronavirus numbers continue to rise.

Many of the candidates responded to Tysons Reporter’s inquiry about how the pandemic changed their campaign strategy, saying that social media has played a larger role in getting their messages out.

“My team of supporters and I had to change the game plan,” mayoral candidate and current Councilmember Linda Colbert said.

Colbert said that she started her campaign this year with the goal of getting to “every house in Vienna.” Instead, she ended up writing a letter to every resident instead.

Traditional face-to-face methods of interacting with voters — going door-to-door, attending events and handing out campaign literature — are moot while social distancing guidelines and the stay-at-home order are in effect.

“Voters in Vienna appreciate it when candidates knock on their doors and take a few minutes to answer questions before leaving a pamphlet,” Roy Baldwin, a councilmember candidate, said. “Since early March, none of that has been possible — the last thing I would want to do would be to either pick up or unwittingly spread the coronavirus by such close contact.”

Baldwin said that this campaign is “certainly nothing” like the one he ran in 2016.

“I’ve gone to the phone a lot more, and to email, text messages, and Facebook posts, as well as traditional mailers and print ads,” he said, adding that he’s even done Zoom conferences.

Ray Brill Jr., a councilmember candidate who said face-to-face “was to be the cornerstone of my campaign,” said that he pivoted to social media, word-of-mouth, signs and mailings to reach voters.

Brill also said that sharing his message through candidate essays, like he did for Tysons Reporter, “gave voters the opportunity to compare and contrast each candidate’s position on key issues facing the Town of Vienna so they could make an informed decision before they voted.”

Brill isn’t the only candidate missing in-person communication.

“I much prefer face-to-face. I don’t think you have a dialogue with people on social media,” Springsteen, who is running for the mayor’s seat, told Tysons Reporter. “I don’t get a lot of feedback [from voters].”

He said that he’s relied on boosting Facebook posts and sent out two mailings — a letter and a postcard — this year, adding that he’s put out fewer yard signs to reduce in-person contact.

While he said he’s “getting a lot of hits on my website,” he said that posting online can feel like putting a message out into a void.

Limited traditional campaigning tactics have forced some candidates to get creative.

“I have no idea if it will translate into votes, but my daily bike rides with the Choose Chuck velocipede has at least brought smiles to people’s faces,” councilmember candidate Chuck Anderson said.

Anderson noted that he keeps “at least 20 feet” away from people while on his bike rides down the middle of the street.

“With a number of neighbors strolling the streets, I have been able to get my name out, at least, to a large number of voters,” he said.

Colbert, a mayoral candidate, turned to daily videos.

“One day I posted a video expressing my concerns for town residents and businesses,” Colbert said. “After receiving positive feedback, I did it another day until I was doing it every day.”

Some of the biggest COVID-19 challenges have impacted the candidates’ jobs more than their campaigns.

“My day job is dealing with the coronavirus,” councilmember candidate Ed Somers said. “So I’m certainly busier in my day job… I think the challenge is the balance of doing what I need to do for work and doing the outreach I need to do for the campaign.”

Majdi shared a similar sentiment, saying that he shifted his focus away from the campaign more to his duties as a current councilmember.

“Campaigning has taken a back seat to the COVID-19 response,” Majdi said. “The top priority is public health and safety.”

Still, Majdi is talking to voters over the phone, and Somers is relying on his network to vouch for him.

“I’ve found [the campaign] to be a good experience,” Somers said, adding that he thinks online communication has “made us more authentic… [since] we’re going more off our instincts.”

Photo via Fairfax County Votes/Twitter

Ashley Hopko contributed to this story, photo (2) courtesy Chuck Anderson

Fairfax County is “urgently” looking for people to help out at the polls for the primary on June 23.

While the county is strongly encouraging voters to absentee vote by mail for this election, election officers are still needed — especially bilingual people in Falls Church who speak Korean or Vietnamese, the county says. Bilingual speakers are also needed in Annandale and Centreville.

The county has taken to social media to find at least 200 election officers for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives primary.

More from the county on measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at the polls:

To protect election officers and voters, the Office of Elections will take precautions that include:

• Providing face coverings, gloves and hand sanitizer for every election officer.
• Limiting the number of voters in the room at the same time.
• Requiring voters to maintain a social distance of six feet from each other and election officers.

Election officers help to set up voting equipment, check photo IDs, provide assistance to voters and tabulate results.

People who are registered to vote in Virginia can sign up online by next Friday, May 15, and can choose to volunteer their time or earn at least $175.

We need you on June 23! We're urgently seeking at least 200 election officers for this primary election. Apply online by May 15: https://t.co/nA2EWK3Jlh Officers will be given face coverings and gloves. Learn more: https://t.co/07m5Apycio pic.twitter.com/ibCGlykbb3

— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) May 6, 2020

For the upcoming election in the Town of Vienna, Fairfax County wants residents to vote using an absentee ballot.

The county issued a statement on Tuesday (March 17) reminding voters that they can mail in their ballots.

People who don’t feel comfortable going out to vote on May 5 because of COVID-19 concerns can request an absentee ballot, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

To qualify for an absentee ballot, people must choose the “disability or illness” box during the application process, Fairfax County’s website said, adding that the last day to register for an absentee ballot is April 28, at 5 p.m.

“Voters who choose the absentee option should do so as soon as possible so they can get their ballots in time to return them by mail by Election Day,” the website said.

Absentee voting begins on March 20, according to the website.

Several candidates are competing for seats on the Vienna Town Council.

Due to #coronavirus, the Virginia Dept of Elections "strongly encourages" absentee voting in the May elections. Use reason "2A My illness or disability." Absentee vote by mail: https://t.co/xRsj4c4jP7#COVID19 #socialdistancing #FlattenTheCurve #VoteAbsentee #Vote @vaELECT pic.twitter.com/kDfRDDlRQU

— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) March 18, 2020