Actual Vote in Virginia

This page explains how to use the Actual Vote app in Virginia for the next election. New to Actual Vote? Start here to learn what it is and why it matters.

Virginia does not post poll tapes — but it hides two of the best non-posting rights anywhere. At the close, if party observer slots aren't filled, officers must select bystanders — ordinary citizens — to watch the count with an "unobstructed view" (§ 24.2-655), and the results must be announced aloud to everyone lawfully present (§ 24.2-657). Then, starting the day after the election, the actual printed return sheets are available at the circuit court clerk's office "for inspection and transcribing... by the public" for 60 days — no appointment, no FOIA (§ 24.2-658). Arlington even tells its officers that an observer may photograph the call-in sheet. Show up at close, transcribe the announcement, then inspect and transcribe the return sheets at the courthouse, and ask the clerk whether you may video-record them. A word on what “does not post” means here. It refers to the start of the chain of custody: Virginia does not require the tape to be posted at the polling place when the count closes, the way Georgia and Florida do. That is the moment a poll tape is hardest to dispute, which is why it matters. Later in the chain, some Virginia localities do publish tape images online — Prince William posts scans of its own poll tapes on its results site, and those scans are where the 974 tapes in our thirteen-election Prince William analysis came from, with no recording trip required. The two are not substitutes — a scan published weeks later has passed through more hands than a tape video-recorded on the door at 8 p.m. — but a county that publishes is a county anyone can audit from home. Check your own county’s results page before you plan a trip, and use the rights above when it does not publish.

Your participation is powerful: you join a nationwide team whose recordings get compared, tape-by-tape, against the officially reported results — an independent check on vote reporting, which is vulnerable to error and fraud. See our most recent Virginia report for what Actual Vote users found. The process is legal and next-to-impossible to abuse for partisan gain: everything on a poll tape is already public.

Poll closing time in Virginia: 7 p.m. Anyone still in line at closing time is entitled to vote, so the closing procedure — and the tape — can run later.

Get the app How Actual Vote works See an example analysis

This information was compiled using AI-assisted internet research along with some calls to election offices and word-of-mouth tips. It reflects America Counts’s best knowledge of how to access poll tapes in Virginia as of October 2026, but it cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. The best way to be sure about accessing poll tapes in your area is to call your local elections office and ask — see below for ready-to-use scripts.

If your experience or knowledge of poll-tape procedure in Virginia is different from what we show here, please contact us and let us know — we update these pages as we learn more.

Your ways to participate in Virginia

See how the six ways to help compare →

1

~~Record posted tapes at polling places~~Not available in Virginia

Virginia doesn’t post the tape outside the polling place, so the election-night route is being there at the close (use case 2).
2

Watch the close as a bystander, then transcribe the return sheets at the courthouse

Virginia doesn’t post tapes. At the close, if party and candidate representatives don’t fill the seats, officers must pick bystanders so that up to four people watch the count, and the results are announced aloud. Party and candidate representatives may not take photos or video inside, so plan to write down the announced totals. Then, from the day after the election and for 60 days, the printed return sheets are available at the circuit court clerk’s office for the public to inspect and transcribe; ask whether you may video-record them. Some localities, like Prince William, also publish scans online.

See a detailed example of how to make a plan to visit polling places on election night based in Broward County, Florida.
3

Record early-voting tapes

Virginia counts early votes in each locality’s central absentee precinct. No totals may leave the room before polls close, and those inside are cut off from outside contact until then (Va. Code § 24.2-712). Some localities, like Prince William, publish the tapes online afterwards, so check your county’s results page. Call your county elections office ahead of time and ask where and when the early-voting tapes will be printed, and whether you may observe and video-record them. If they don’t have a plan to show them, you can politely ask them to display the tapes.

See a detailed example of recording early-voting tapes, based on Cobb County, Georgia.
4

Become a poll worker or observer

Working the polls or serving as an appointed observer puts you right at the source — the earliest point in the chain of custody, and the clearest view of the count and the tape.

See more details about Actual Vote for poll workers or observers.

Sign up to be a poll worker →
5

Visit or book an appointment at your county elections office

Election offices can often provide many precincts’ tapes at once — a great way to cover a whole county on your own schedule.

Email/phone script — book an appointment at your Virginia county elections office

To: [your county] County elections office
Re: Appointment to view and record precinct results tapes

Hello, and thank you for your work. My name is [name]. My friends and I use Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — we video-record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check.

We’d like to request an appointment to view and video-record the certified precinct results tapes (summary statements) from the [date] election — Election Day, absentee/by-mail, and early voting — for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____]. [Preferred date and window] would work, but we’re flexible and happy to follow any rules your office sets.

Everything on these tapes is public records under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Va. Code § 2.2-3704), and already public, so all we’d need is the tapes and a place to work. Thank you for considering it. — [name], [contact]

Offices are busiest right before certification — offering a flexible window (and to start with a few precincts) makes a yes easier. See the full worked example for more.

See a detailed example of how to do this.
6

File a public-records request for poll-tape images

Poll tapes are public records under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. You can request digital copies by precinct and voting method — available in every state, though it captures the tapes later in the chain of custody.

Public-records request email — Virginia precinct statements of results

To: [your county] County General Registrar's office
Re: Public data request — [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election] statements of results, [your county] County

Dear [County] County General Registrar,

Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Va. Code § 2.2-3704, I'm requesting copies of public election data — specifically the precinct Statements of Results (the printed return sheets showing candidate-by-candidate totals from each precinct's tabulator), meeting the following criteria:

• From Virginia's [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election]
• From all precincts in [your county] County
• For each voting method — Election Day (in-person precinct), absentee by mail, and early in-person voting
• The statements showing candidate-by-candidate vote totals — I don't need the zero or configuration tapes, though including them is fine
• If for any combination above no ballots were cast (so no statement was printed), simply omit it

I understand these Statements of Results are also open for public inspection and transcription at the Circuit Court Clerk's office for 60 days after the election (§ 24.2-658), so if it's easier to point me there I'm glad to visit in person — but a FOIA response with scans would save both of us time.

Digital scans (emailed or via a download link, in any common format such as .pdf or .jpg) would be ideal; physical copies for pickup or mail are also fine. These are public records, and the totals they show are already in the official published results. They'll be used for legitimate, non-partisan vote-reporting auditing with Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — you can see exactly how it works, and why it's non-partisan, at Start Here.

If you must redact anything beyond precinct name, voting method, and results totals, please go ahead. If you deny any part of this request, please cite the specific exemption and let me know the appeal options under the law. Please also tell me of any fee in advance — I request a fee waiver, as this analysis is in the public interest, contributes to election transparency, and is not for any commercial purpose.

Because our analysis is most useful before results are certified, I'd be grateful for the data within about a week if possible; if you expect a delay, just let me know when to expect it.

Thank you for considering this request. — [name], [email/phone]

See a detailed example of how to do this.

Live near a state line? Consider crossing it.

Virginia makes election-night recording hard — but these neighbors post a results tape right on the outside of the polling place: Kentucky or District of Columbia. If you live near the border, a short drive across it can be the highest-value Actual Vote move of the night. Honest caveat: a tape you record there verifies that state’s precinct, not your own — it complements your in-state options, it doesn’t replace them.

See a detailed example of how to make a plan to visit polling places on election night based in Broward County, Florida.

Poll tapes we have already checked in Virginia

Virginia is one of the states America Counts has audited. Virginia does not post poll tapes at the polling place on election night — but Prince William County publishes scans of its own tapes afterwards, so we did not need a volunteer with a phone to read them: we transcribed 974 tapes across thirteen elections and compared 13,986 values against what Virginia certified, with zero apparent discrepancies. These are three pages from that corpus — the same paper the analysis read.

The head of every tape: county, precinct, election date, the machine and its serial number, and the ballot counter.
The part that gets compared: every contest, every candidate, every total — plus write-ins, undervotes and overvotes.
Not everything is printed. This signed hand-count sheet carries six votes the scanners never tallied — and Virginia’s published figure includes them.

Read the full analysis →

Example Actual Vote Recordings

We don’t have any recordings from Virginia yet — you could be the first! Here are some example poll tape videos by Actual Vote users in other states. America Counts compares the vote totals on each poll tape video to the official results to double-check the accuracy of the vote reporting. See our Virginia report for an example of what that comparison produces.

Recordings live in the public Actual Vote Video Archive.

How we know this — and how you can check it

This reflects America Counts’s primary-source review of Virginia’s election statutes and Secretary of State guidance, most recently updated in October 2026; the summary at the top of this page and the early-voting card link the provisions it relies on. Procedures can still vary locally, so the surest way to confirm what applies at your polling place or elections office is to call them directly. Found something different? Tell us and we’ll verify it and fix the page.

Find your county's election website

County sites carry polling locations and local contact information. Search "[your county], Virginia elections" if a link 404s.

Your ways to participate in Virginia

Record posted tapes at polling placesNot available in Virginia

Watch the close as a bystander, then transcribe the return sheets at the courthouse

Record early-voting tapes

Become a poll worker or observer

Visit or book an appointment at your county elections office

File a public-records request for poll-tape images

Live near a state line? Consider crossing it.

Poll tapes we have already checked in Virginia

Example Actual Vote Recordings

How we know this — and how you can check it

Find your county's election website

Ready to help?