Virginia’s most populous county will not meet its self-imposed 8:00 p.m. deadline and is delayed in reporting of early vote ballot tallies.
“Fairfax County is delayed in reporting its early vote ballots. We do not know when we are expecting those ballots to be counted, but it will not be by the self-imposed 8 p.m. deadline,” New York Times reporter Reid Epstein announced within an hour of polls closing in Virginia.
Some news from Virginia: Fairfax County is delayed in counting and reporting its early vote totals, which the county had promised to make public by 8pm. Unclear how late they will be. https://t.co/mGbLURAkrK
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) November 2, 2021
Reports of the inexplicable delay were later confirmed by Terry McAuliffe’s (D) campaign:
The county was originally set to provide early vote totals by 8pm
— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch) November 2, 2021
Fairfax County comprises about 13 percent of Virginia’s population, currently estimated at 1,147,532 – the most populous county in the state. In the 2017 gubernatorial election, Fairfax County swung heavily for former Gov. Ralph Northam (D) with 66.6 percent of the vote. For Republican Glenn Youngkin to squeak out a victory in Virginia, turnout for Terry McAuliffe (D) in Fairfax County will have to be subpar.
The possibility that Fairfax County’s delay could result in an extended Virginia election similar to 2020 sparked outrage among conservatives on Twitter.
How is it that there are *still* places that can’t get elections right. Fairfax had days to count early ballots — so why the delay? What happened?
Perhaps unrelated, the VA Dept. of Elections Commissioner just announced he’ll be speaking at 8pm. https://t.co/RNZvJ8FWoq
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) November 2, 2021
The Fairfax delay is absolutely unacceptable.
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 2, 2021
Now they need to “rescan” ballots?!
2020 all over again!!
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) November 3, 2021
Breaking: Fairfax County, Virginia has announced that they are *RE-SCANNING* ballots and will be releasing their vote totals later tonight.
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 2, 2021
Why is Fairfax county “delayed”?
— 🇺🇸ERIC BOLLING🇺🇸 (@ericbolling) November 3, 2021
