Fairfax County rescans 25K ballots from early voting locations after technical issue

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Fairfax County had to rescan about 25,000 ballots on Election Night from four of their early voting locations after an issue scanning the electronic media or thumb drives, according to a spokesperson for Fairfax County Elections Department.

Live election results today: County by county in Virginia

The rescanning comes on Election Day for Virginia with the race for governor being closely watched across the state and the country.

Fairfax County rescanning 20K ballots from early voting locations

Fairfax County is rescanning about 20,000 ballots from four of their early voting locations after an issue scanning the electronic media or thumb drives, according to a spokesperson for Fairfax County Elections Department.

FOX 5 has learned these are all early in-person votes and not same-day votes. Officials say the thumb drive used to record the votes after they were scanned got corrupted.

Fairfax Co-director of Elections Scott Konopasek says the situation highlights the importance of paper ballots as backups.

"We had a hiccup," Konopasek says. "We had a couple of machines they gave us fits. We had to learn a few things about handling the electronic media in this new format of reporting but it has been a big success. We dropped a huge number of votes, election results early on tonight and we continue to add to those results."

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He also added this is something that's not uncommon and almost every election sees a precinct or two on Election Day with a similar problem.

Live results are available here.