Virginia Voter Rolls in Flux

A second wave of data issues at the state Department of Elections has created unprecedented uncertainty about Virginia voter rolls with less than a week before Election Day. Registration statistics released Tuesday show Virginia had a record 6,092,117 registered voters at the end of October. But that number is expected to climb as local election officials cope with a second backlog of DMV transactions that had been submitted between May and September but never processed.

An analysis of transaction history in Henrico County suggests that this second batch will yield fewer last-minute new voter registrations than some media reports have suggested. On Tuesday, multiple media outlets described the 149,000 transactions as "voter registrations." But data from Henrico County suggests new registrations are a small fraction of voter transactions, which include address changes, transfers from other localities and people submitting duplicate registrations.

Even if voter rolls do not expand as much as many believe, local registrars still face the challenge of getting their voter lists squared away in time for in-person voting on November 8. Voters whose address or status is in question have the option of filing a provisional ballot, which will give election officials until Monday, November 14, to confirm whether they were qualified to cast a ballot.

Note: Voter transaction data provided by Henrico County Voter Registrar Mark Coakley. Data for January through October of 2022. The transactions include those from the DMV and other sources. The category "Other" includes denied applications, corrections, reactivated registrations and other updates to existing registrations.