To serve this election, all election officers are required to watch a Zoom class covering Operational and Procedural Updates for the November 2021 General and Special Elections.
We are hosting 14 sessions of this Zoom class in late September and early October. See below for a recording of one session hosted on Tuesday, Sep 28, 2021.
The main portion of the class is about 20 minutes. The remainder of the class is a question-and-answer session.
Highlights:
Election officers: Must wear a face mask on election day.
Voters: Will be strongly encouraged to wear a face covering. For unmasked voters, first ask the voter to wear a face covering (if they do not have one of their own, you may offer one from the supplies given to each precinct). If the voter declines, ask them to vote curbside or outside the polling place. If the voter declines this as well, allow them to vote inside the polling place.
PPE Supplies: Each precinct will receive acrylic sneeze guards, face masks, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes.
Ballots: Will now be padded, stubbed, and marked with Ballot Type (“BT1”). Each precinct will receive its own unique set of ballots.
Forms: Ongoing effort to make forms simpler and clearer. Some forms will now be multilingual, instead of having 4 separate versions of the same form.
Poll Pads: No more iSync drives and turnout surveys. All precincts will now receive a mobile hotspot, which the Poll Pads will use for syncing to a secure election database. Keep Poll Pads within 30 feet of the mobile hotspot at most times.
ExpressVote ballot marking device: Updated interface now shows all contests on one screen. No longer contains USB flash drive. Remember, any voter may use the ExpressVote! Don’t hide it in a corner.
DS200 ballot scanners: You must set up and configure all voting equipment, including both DS200 scanners. Seal ballot compartment when ballots are inside. During closing, remove 2 USB flash drives from each DS200 only after the machine has been completely shut down. Seal them in a purple pouch and give to Collector Officers, who will immediately drive them to the Fairfax County Government Center.
Curbside voting: You may now take a Poll Pad outside to help curbside voters.
Drop box: One drop box per polling place building. May be positioned outside building or near voting room entrance. Should be monitored by greeter or other election officer at all times. After polls close, Collector Officers will count and secure absentee ballot envelopes, then immediately drive them (and the purple pouch containing USB flash drives from the DS200 scanners) to the Fairfax County Government Center.
For a list of frequently asked questions and answers, visit the FAQs.
Quiz Instructions
If you are an election officer, you must take a quiz in the Election Officer Portal after watching the Operational and Procedural Updates training class to receive credit.
The quiz is available in the Election Officer Portal. Go to the Training tab, then scroll down to the very bottom right corner of the page, and look for a “Take quiz” link. If you have multiple quiz links, make sure you are taking the one corresponding to the “Quiz for OPU class” and not another class you may be enrolled in (such as the Election Officer Basics) class.
If you need help accessing the quiz, contact us at ElectionOfficerTraining@fairfaxcounty.gov or 703-324-4735 (weekdays 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM).
Equipment Practice Sessions
Excited about the updates this election, but wish you could practice with the voting equipment? Don’t worry, that’s why we are hosting Equipment Practice Session open houses before election day!
We are hosting these events from Mon Oct 11 to Thu Oct 14 at the Fairfax County Government Center, Mason Governmental Center, and McLean Governmental Center.
You must use the Election Officer Portal to sign up for a timeslot. Go to the Training tab, look on the right, and click on the first “Sign up for training” button. Click the checkbox next to your preferred timeslot, then scroll down and click on the “Enroll in selected class” button.
Thanks for being a Fairfax County election officer!