2nd statewide in voter complaints, Prince William makes precinct changes

WOODBRIDGE — Changes came this week to multiple voting precincts in Prince William County.

In the west, the Piney Branch voting precinct was renamed the Chris Ying Precinct, named after the fallen Prince William County Police Officer killed New Year’s Eve 2012 while responding to a vehicle crash. An elementary school also named after Yung, located at 12612 Fog Light Way near Gainesville, will serve as the polling place.

The neighboring Bristow Run precinct will be split in two, with half of it being renamed the new Piney Branch precinct with Piney Branch Elementary School at 8301 Linton Hall Road as the polling place. The other half of the newly split precinct will keep the Bristow Run name, with Bristow Run Elementary School, located at 8990 Worthington Drive, serving as the polling place.

In Woodbridge, the Potomac precinct will be cut in half. The band room at Potomac Senior High School will continue to serve as the polling place for 2,398 voters, while the same number of voters in the newly created Williams precinct will vote at Mary Williams Elementary School, just down the street from Potomac High School 3100 Panther Pride Drive.

Prince William County’s growing population is what is driving the need to split precincts. There are 14 more growing precincts across the county, all with more than 4,000 registered voters each, officials will need to review if it wants to abide by a recommendation by the county Electoral Board to keep voting precincts at or below 4,700 registered voters.

State law caps precincts to 5,000 registered voters. It also freezes the creation of new voting precincts between Feb. 1, 2019, and May 15, 2019, due to the upcoming U.S. Census in 2020.

Supervisors Maureen Caddigan (Potomac) and Jeanine Lawson (Brentsville) praised the county’s office of elections for working with both voters and staff in their respective offices to draw up the changes.

The Electoral Board suggested in 2017 the county create new precincts. Last year, the Board of Supervisors funded the creation of the two new voting precincts but the implementation of the new voting precincts was delayed in September by the order of County Executive Christopher Martino, according to county documents, to avoid confusing voters in the November General Election.

The precinct changes come after Prince William County ranked second in the top three counties with the most voter complaints during the Nov. 6, 2018 General Election. Chesterfield and Henrico ranked first and third, respectively.

A total of 69 voter complaints were lodged against the Prince William County Office of Elections on Election Day. A State Board of Elections report released on Dec. 21, 2018 notes most complaints were due to long lines, and the fact that some precincts were understaffed. Similar counties use up to eight poll workers for precincts with 2,000 or fewer registered voters, while Prince William used only five for precincts with 3,000 voters.

There were also equipment problems.

“Having only one voting machine/scanner in each polling location (as Prince William County did) combined with a high voter turnout created a situation where voters were waiting to cast their ballots after having marked them,” the report states. “The wait at the scanner resulted in a wait at voter check-in, thus resulting in long lines.”

Long lines were also the top complaint in Chesterfield and Henrico counties.