Updated: Top Prince William election official not confident ‘all polling locations opening on time tomorrow’

Update 5:30 p.m.

While the school division has not told us why it happened, a situation in which voting equipment was turned away from three Prince Willaim County Public Schools to be used tomorrow as polling places has been rectified.

More from Prince William County General Registrar Michele White:

As of 4:28pm today all voting equipment has been delivered to all 93 precincts in Prince William County for tomorrow’s dual primary.

COVID and the closing of nearly all facilities in March meant many hurdles to overcome: getting AC back on and running, construction at schools suspended for election day and staff at every site to accept equipment delivery. Again all precincts submitted completed contact forms to the Office of Elections back in April, however today — in multiple instances — contacts listed were called for a delivery with no answer or our call going straight to voice mail.

While my correspondence to all of the stakeholders from earlier today might have been considered “alarmist or premature” these conversations were worth the time and effort to have the day before an election to ensure that all polling places are open by the mandated time of 6:00am.

Update 4:50 p.m.

Voting machines and electronic poll books have been delivered to two of three polling places that did not accept them earlier today.

Equipment is now in place at Potomac High School and Ronald Wilson Reagan Middle schools in Woodbridge and Haymarket, respectively.

Chris Yung Elementary School in Bristow was the third location that did not accept the equipment this morning. We don’t yet know if the equipment is in place, as we’re waiting for word from the school division.

We’re also waiting for the school division to provide an explanation of why the equipment was not accepted at the time of delivery.

Original post 1:10 p.m.

Prince William County’s top election official says she’s not confident all polling places will open on time for tomorrow’s Primary Election.

Potomac Local News has learned Prince William County General Registrar Michlele White sent an email top county officials today notifying them that multiple schools were locked when a delivery truck arrived to unload key voting equipment such as voting machines and laptop computers, which serve as electronic poll books.

Those schools include:

• Potomac Senior High School, at 3401 Panther Pride Drive in Woodbridge
• Ronald Wilson Reagan Middle School, at 15801 Tanning House Place in Haymarket
• Chris Yung Elementary School, at 12612 Fog Light Way in Bristow

White tells PLN that, as of 1 p.m., the deliveries of all of the equipment have yet to be accepted.

Voters across the county will head to the polls Tuesday to elect a Democrat to in two congressional races, in the 1st and 11th House districts that will go on to compete in the November 3 General Election. Republicans will also choose a Senate candidate to face Mark Warner (D-Va) in the November 3 General Election.

Here’s White’s email to county leaders:

Board of County of Supervisors, School Board Members and Party Chairmen,

The Office of Elections has been preparing for tomorrow’s June 23 Primary.

Today Monday June 22, upon delivery of voting equipment at schools, school staff has been unavailable or unaware that an election is happening tomorrow. In one case, school staff were told by their principal that they had today off.

The Office of Elections sent out contact sheets to be filled out by each school. These were sent out, filled out and returned to the Office of Elections in April of 2020. Warren Jenkins has sent out several reminders during June on our behalf letting schools know that staff must be on site today June 22 until 5:00pm, all day tomorrow election day June 23 from 5:00am until polls close at 7:00pm and then again on Wednesday June 24 for voting equipment retrieval.

Names listed on the contact sheets are not answering their phones when we call about cage delivery. This is not making me confident in all polling locations opening on time tomorrow, despite our multiple attempts to communicate with principals and other school staff. This is not acceptable for our voting public.

Polls must open tomorrow on time at 6:00am. Again multiple communications have been sent to schools in well advance regarding this availability at each school that serves as a polling place, however I am not confident that all schools are on board with having staff on site for our election teams, despite multiple attempts today to get cage delivery completed today.

Supervisors and School Board members – is there any way you can assist us in contacting each principal and ensuring that polls will open on time tomorrow for the primary?

The Office of Elections very much appreciates your assistance in this effort.