A potential statewide special election on mid-decade redistricting could put further stress on Fairfax County’s elections office, which has already been stretched thin over the past six months.
For now, however, the county’s election officials say the situation remains under control.
“We’re doing okay,” Fairfax County Electoral Board chair Kate Hanley told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last Tuesday (Feb. 3), before Virginia Democrats released their proposed new map.
To keep up with the seemingly nonstop churn of elections, the office’s staff has been “working around the clock and around the calendar,” Hanley said.
In addition to last November’s general election, Fairfax has handled special elections for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, Braddock District supervisor and two House of Delegates seats over the past six months.
A special election for the 39th Senate District seat will occur on Tuesday, Feb. 10, followed by a special election for the Braddock District School Board seat taking place on March 3.
“This has been an incredible year — an unprecedented year,” said Braddock District Supervisor Rachna Sizemore Heizer, who was elected in December to fill the seat vacated last September by James Walkinshaw following the death of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11).
Sizemore Heizer’s election to the county board left her former school board seat vacant, pending the results of the March special election being contested by Saundra Davis and Tom Dannan II.
All these special elections have only involved portions of Fairfax County, sometimes very small portions. The Feb. 10 election triggered by the pending resignation of Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39) will include just seven of the county’s 256 precincts, as the 39th District is centered primarily in the city of Alexandria.
However, if Democrats in the General Assembly succeed in getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot allowing Virginia’s 11 Congressional districts to be redrawn in time for this year’s midterms, the special election would require every Fairfax County precinct to be staffed.
Assuming the legislation signed last Friday (Feb. 6) by Gov. Abigail Spanberger survives ongoing court challenges, the current expectation is a special election will be held Tuesday, April 21, with early voting starting March 16.
Though not as intense an operation as the 2024 or 2024 general elections, a countywide special election would involve substantial resources.
For the Nov. 4, 2025, gubernatorial election, Fairfax required 2,365 election officers, plus 35 “rovers,” on Election Day itself, along with 222 officers and six “rovers” for early voting.
Hanley said one potential concern — a lack of residents signing up to staff polling places during elections — has not materialized.
“There are a lot of people in Fairfax County willing to be election officers,” said Hanley, who was reelected in January to chair the three-member Electoral Board.
If an April vote on redistricting occurs, there won’t be much time for election officials to rest before preparing for primaries typically held in June.
“In May, we start again,” Hanley said.
Depending on how the redistricting effort shakes out, primary elections potentially could be pushed back to late summer for House of Representatives’ districts and perhaps for all races, including U.S. Senate.
In her report to supervisors, Hanley said the registrar’s office is doing as much as it can to keep the public aware of an ever-changing situation.
“It’s up to us to work to alleviate confusion — and there was and is, a lot of confusion,” she said.
Fairfax County is just one of more than 130 Virginia localities gearing up for the possibility of a springtime special election.
“There are still a lot of unknowns,” Gretchen Reinemeyer, registrar in Arlington County, said at the Feb. 3 meeting of that community’s Electoral Board.
Election officials in Arlington were adopting the motto of Scouts — “be prepared” — for whatever might come.
“We are waiting on further information,” said Kim Phillip, chair of the Arlington Electoral Board.
Hanley, who served as a school board member, district supervisor and chair of the Board of Supervisors for Fairfax County, joked that she had pleasant memories of her own experiences with elections held outside the normal November time frame.
“Having won two of them, I appreciate the importance of special elections,” Hanley told supervisors.
