Fairfax County election officials say they are holding their own as a series of special elections keeps local voters on their toes.
“We’ve got a fantastic team,” said Eric Spicer, the county’s registrar and elections director, at the Jan. 7 Electoral Board meeting.
At the same time, he acknowledged, “our entire staff has been tremendously busy — we’ve got our hands full.”
At the Electoral Board meeting, held on a Wednesday, Spicer joked that “it’s not a Tuesday, so we don’t have an election today, but we will have many more.”
After contending with special elections for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District and the Braddock District seat on the Board of Supervisors toward the end of 2025, Fairfax officials now have four more upcoming special elections:
- Tuesday, Jan. 13, to fill the vacancy in the 11th House District when David Bulova was appointed Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources by incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D)
- Tuesday, Jan. 20, to fill the vacancy in the 17th House District, caused when Mark Sickles was chosen by Spanberger to be Secretary of Finance
- Tuesday, Feb. 10, to determine a successor to state Sen. Adam Ebbin, who is resigning from his 39th Senate District seat to serve as senior advisor to the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority
- Tuesday, March 3, to fill the vacancy on the Fairfax County School Board for the Braddock District after Rachna Sizemore-Heizer was elected to fill James Walkinshaw’s seat on the Board of Supervisors
Walkinshaw was elected to Congress last September following the death of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11).
None of the recent or upcoming elections is countywide in scope, which may be a blessing in a community that has 265 voting precincts and just under 760,000 active registered voters, according to Virginia Department of Elections data.
But March 3 may not mark the end of the upcoming special elections, which could include an April statewide referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment to allow a redistricting of congressional seats in advance of November’s midterm election.
The Electoral Board meeting was brief — slightly more than 30 minutes — but there was time for discussion of planning for the possibility that precincts could run out of ballots in any of the upcoming elections.
Each election, county staff must guesstimate how many ballots are needed, then stand by to deal with any shortages.
“It’s a guessing game that we have to be flexible about,” acknowledged Electoral Board chair Kate Hanley.
Election officials have access to a printer that can churn out 10,000 ballots an hour on demand, Spicer said, and there is a logistical plan to get them to precincts before supplies run out — so long as precinct officers keep the central elections office informed.
“We’ve built in a lot of contingencies,” he said.
According to Spicer, the goal is to come as close to having as many ballots as needed without being left with a huge pile of unused ones at the end of the day.
“There are some jurisdictions that print a hundred percent” of the ballots that would be needed if every voter turned out, Spicer said. “We think that would be a huge waste of money.”
The Jan. 7 meeting marked the first for new Electoral Board member Megan Challender, a Democrat appointed by the Fairfax County Circuit Court to succeed Republican Jeffrey Shapiro.
Under state law, the change in the governorship from Republican Glenn Youngkin to Democrat Abigail Spanberger means all 130-plus local electoral boards statewide will switch in the coming year from two Republicans and one Democrat to the reverse.
Because Shapiro was the first of the two Republicans on Fairfax’s board whose term expired, he was the one up for replacement.
Arlington also has seen a flip from a Republican to a Democrat. In Falls Church, the next expiring Republican term is not until the end of 2026, so the ratio of two Republicans and one Democrat will be maintained this year.
On the Fairfax County Electoral Board, Challender joins Hanley, a former Democratic chair of the Board of Supervisors, and Republican Kevin Pinkney.
“It’s an honor to be here — thanks so much,” said Challender, who is an attorney like Pinkney.
For 2026, Hanley will continue as chair, Challender will serve as vice chair and Pinkney as secretary.
“I will forego the inauguration speech,” Hanley cracked.
State law requires the posts of chair and secretary to be held by members of different political parties.
