Virginia: It's Time to Record Date AND TIME Ballots Are Received
Early voting is underway for Virginia's Democrat and Republican presidential primaries. The time-stamps of when voters cast a ballot are all over the map. EPEC breaks down why this matters.
Early voting is well underway in Virginia’s 45-day voting period for the Republican and Democrat Presidential primaries, culminating in the March 5th “Super Tuesday” results.
But data on when early voters or Election Day voters cast their ballots is mixed so far.
This is a data quality issue that could be fixed.
Electoral Process Education Corporation (EPEC) volunteers are currently auditing Virginia Primary Election early voting Daily Absentee List data. We are seeing the same inconsistencies and data input errors we observed in the last four General Election early voting periods.
One of the most common data-input errors or inconsistencies observed involves the date a ballot was received by election officials to be counted.
Allegations of after hours voting in prior elections has spurred a closer look at electoral process date fields, such as: [App_Receipt_Date] and [Ballot_Receipt_Date].
The Date fields are important for several reasons.
Application receipt dates provide important insight about the potential accuracy of absentee ballot requests or voter registration information.
Ballot receipt dates and times provide an indication of whether the ballots were received during an active voting period and whether they were processed during the work day with election staff present.
Process + Quality Of In-Person [Ballot Receipt Date] Entries
Voters who show up at a polling place to vote in person receive a ballot after an election official verifies their registration. The process involves verifying identity and correct precinct prior to issuing the voter a ballot.
At this point, the election officer could be updating the [Ballot_Receipt_Date] field in the poll book. Ideally, the poll book software should capture this event automatically to include Date and Time from the poll book clock. But many do not.
Seventy (70) of Virginia’s 133 Localities Fail The [Ballot_Received_Date] Quality Assessment
Analysis of ongoing 2024 early Primary voting shows that 70 Virginia localities do not capture this fundamental data about when ballots are cast.
All early On-Machine DAL entries should include Date and Time in the [Ballot_Receipt_Date] field. More than half of the Locality General Registrars are not capturing the time a ballot is received from In-Person voters.
Time data helps official verify that ballots were cast during voting hours, and can build trust that ballots are being managed according to Virginia statutes.
The Process For Assessing ‘Pass’ Or ‘Fail’ on Time Stamps
EPEC’s analysis involves early voting data from two elections: Democrat Primary early voting, and Republican Primary voting.
We assessed each Locality’s use of the [Ballot_Receipt_Date] field in both primaries, and compared data entries for consistency between Party Primaries.
Localities entering full Date and Time data in format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS passed the Data Quality test.
Localities entering partial time data in format YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00 or which had mixed data entries (Date only, or some with Date and Time), were assessed as failing the data quality test in the process EPEC applied.
Some Localities passed the test in one party Primary, but failed it in the other party Primary. That resulted in a failing grade due to data input inconsistency.
Supporting Data
Overall, seventy (70) Localities analyzed were not capturing Time data in the [Ballot_Receipt_Date] field, or were inconsistent in their use of the field. Some reflected Date only; other times the field carried Date and Time.
Many localities do appear to be focused on consistency. Sixty-five (65) Localities passed the quality test by entering Date and Time in the [Ballot_Receipt_Date] field for Democrat Primary voters; sixty-three (63) Localities did so for Republican Primary voters.
Some Localities captured the full Data and Time in one Primary election, but did not with the other Primary election. That is inconsistent. It did not pass our test.
Five (5) Localities so far show no record of In-Person Democrat Primary voters; two (2) Localities so far show no record of In-Person Republican Primary voters.
Charles City County shows no record of In-Person ballots cast in either primary at this point in the process.
We could not assess whether Charles City County was properly entering data into the [Ballot_Receipt_Date] field for In-Person (On Machine) voters because no voters have been recorded as having voted On Machine voting in that Locality.
The table below shows which Locality election officials are capturing [Ballot_Receipt_Date] fields in their early voting data.
Seventy (70) out of one hundred thirty-three (133) Localities were given a failing grade for not including Time data in [Ballot_Received_Date] field.
Conclusion
Virginia is not properly recording one key information element — Time — when ballots are being received. It is very easy to do so for In-Person voting. The Date / Time data from the poll-book should be captured at the same time a voter checks in and is handed a ballot.
Failure to capture Time data creates uncertainty in the process.
EPEC’s Recommendation
Capturing Time data in the [Ballot_Receipt_Date] field in all Virginia Localities is an easy fix, and has nothing to do with the voter’s choices. It is simply a record of the time and day a ballot was cast. This is a critical information element of an election process that is extended over 45 days for early voting before Election Day.
Currently, Time entries of 00:00:00 appear as though votes were cast at midnight. This is a simple fix which can help restore confidence in electoral processes.
Two bills in Virginia’s assembly tried to address this but with added complications. HB 907, for example, required a voting system “to produce a printed receipt for each voter who has cast a ballot that shows the date and time the voter's ballot was cast.”
It also stipulated the receipt might include a “list of all the voter's selections on the ballot as recorded by the voting system,” which raised privacy concerns among legislators. They voted to hold the bill over to the next legislative session. A companion bill in the Senate, SB 303, also failed to move out of committee for much the same reason.
A simple measure to add a time-stamp to the official record of when a ballot is cast might be the fix that builds a more complete election record. It would help Registrars understand the best ways to allocate resources for election management of In-Person and Absentee ballots and to understand their processes. It would show that ballots were cast and processed during the times set by statute.
These are early fixes in software deployed in poll books. By correcting this data inconsistency now, Virginia could ensure this measure is in place, and mature, for the 2024 General Election. Time is an easily captured — and critical — information element for any election official to understand the elections they oversee.
And it is easily recorded behind the scenes while an election is proceeding. #
—Analysis by Rick Naigle, Senior Process Analyst, EPEC Board of Directors
Source Data, Virginia Department of Elections Daily Absentee Lists
2024: Daily Absentee Lists, Democrat and Republic Primaries (5 Feb 2024)
2023: Daily Absentee List, 15 Nov 2023
2022: Daily Absentee List, 23 Nov 2022
2021: Daily Absentee List, 20 Nov 2021
2020: Daily Absentee List, 9 Nov 2020