Election workers inside Norfolk City Hall spent most of Election Day battling websites that would not load, video calls that kept dropping, and disconnections from state-approved databases, according to Stephanie Iles, the city's director of elections and general registrar. The building itself was closed to the public that day, with only election staff inside, after in-person voting had ended the Saturday before.
As reported by WAVY.com, Iles said the connectivity issues hindered voter assistance, same-day registration work, and the reporting of election results. Michael Khandelwal, vice chairman of the Norfolk Electoral Board, said the uncertainty over whether the internet would come back caused severe stress for election workers trying to do their jobs under deadline pressure.
City Scrambled an Emergency Response
The City of Norfolk activated an emergency plan and called in an IT worker as the outage dragged on, the outlet's report states. Election workers reportedly worried they might not be able to enter unofficial results at all if internet access wasn't restored in time, though they were ultimately able to log those results once connectivity improved later in the day.
A Spectrum spokesperson attributed the network disruption at City Hall to a power interruption at a facility housing the company's equipment, and the provider restored service by 4 p.m., per the same account. Iles said the lack of communication from the provider about what was happening was upsetting, even as officials were advised that additional connectivity issues could occur throughout the rest of the week. Spectrum reportedly warned that potential maintenance at the facility could cause further power interruptions and said it would have a technician ready to respond if that happened.
Why Reliable Internet Matters for Certification
Iles said constant internet connectivity is necessary to complete certification of a federal election, underscoring the stakes of even a temporary outage on a day already packed with deadlines. A Norfolk city spokesperson said intermittent outages had occurred the day after Election Day and noted that city offices were closed for Election Day, which limited the scope of service disruptions elsewhere. Despite the technical trouble, the elections office processed ballots and entered information into the state system as usual, the spokesperson added.
The disruption didn't appear to delay Norfolk's final tally. According to the Virginian-Pilot, all 49 Norfolk precincts had fully reported results, including early voting and mailed ballots, by midday Wednesday. Unofficial results in one closely watched local measure showed Norfolk voters opposing a sales-tax increase by 56% to 44%.
Certification Deadlines Loom Statewide
Norfolk's electoral board isn't working without a clock. Virginia law directs local electoral boards to ascertain results and certify and sign the abstract of votes no later than 10 calendar days after the election, putting this year's deadline at November 13, according to the Brennan Center. The state's Board of Elections then has until the first Monday in December, December 7, to meet and certify results for nonlocal races.
Norfolk wasn't the only place where technical snags complicated Election Day operations. In North Carolina, officials extended voting hours at five sites across four counties after separate technical problems, according to Spectrum News. That included a computer outage in Columbus County that pushed voting at the South Williams-Tabor City Courthouse to 8:15 p.m. and a printer problem in Lenoir County that extended hours at the K8 Holloway Recreation Center to 8 p.m., with officials announcing the extensions at an emergency meeting that Tuesday afternoon.
