A small number of voters at 19 Henrico County precincts are being asked to cast provisional ballots today due to technical difficulties with electronic poll books. The provisional ballots will be counted as regular ballots, said General Registrar Mark Coakley.

When polls opened this morning, officials with Henrico’s Voter Registration and Elections Office identified 954 voters that had been assigned mistakenly to a precinct adjacent to their actual precinct. These voters are going to the correct location to cast their ballot, Coakley said, but are not listed in the poll book. Virginia State Board of Elections policy requires these voters to cast a provisional ballot.

“Because we identified the affected voters immediately, all votes cast by these voters on provisional ballots will be counted as regular ballots,” Coakley said.

The 19 affected precincts are spread across the county: Maude Trevvett, Adams, Belmont, Fairfield, Ratcliffe, Wilder, Three Chopt, Derbyshire, Gayton, Maybeury, Mooreland, Skipwith, Welborne, Cedar Fork, Chickahominy, Highland Springs, Montrose, Nine Mile and Pleasants.

Voters assigned to these precincts should continue to proceed to their regular polling place; the vast majority of them will not be affected. The number of voters identified as being mistakenly assigned to an incorrect precinct is less than half of 1 percent of Henrico’s 199,724 registered voters, Coakley noted.