Virginia Department of Elections

What Virginia Department of Elections does

The Virginia Department of Elections (ELECT) is a state government agency within the executive branch of the Commonwealth of Virginia, headquartered at 1100 Bank Street, First Floor, Washington Building, Richmond. It serves as the centralized statutory authority for election administration across all 95 counties and 38 independent cities, working through a network of 133 certified local general registrars. The agency's primary constituents are approximately 6.4 million registered Virginia voters, plus four secondary stakeholder groups: military and overseas citizens, voters with disabilities, political candidates and committees, and Officers of Election (poll workers).

The department operates a portfolio of proprietary platforms including the Virginia Election and Registration Information System (VERIS) for voter registration management, the Committee Electronic Tracking Application (COMET) for campaign finance disclosure, the Election Night Reporting System (with JSON/CSV data access), Ballot Scout for absentee ballot tracking, and an Electronic Ballot-Marking Tool for voters with print disabilities. Public-facing distribution channels include the Citizen Portal (vote.elections.virginia.gov), in-person early voting at registrar offices beginning 45 days before elections, mail/absentee voting, NVRA-designated state agencies (DMV, Health, Social Services, Aging and Rehabilitative Services), public libraries, and armed forces recruitment offices. The agency provides multilingual coverage in 11 languages and maintains WCAG 2.0 Level AA accessibility compliance.

The department has no commercial revenue model. All voter services are provided free of charge to citizens, funded instead through Commonwealth of Virginia appropriations. Election security is supported through partnerships with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), Department of Homeland Security, and Center for Internet Security. Operational scale is evidenced by 4.5 million voters participating in the 2024 general election (70.48% turnout) versus 3.45 million in the 2025 off-year general election (54.31% turnout), with absentee voting reaching 2.34 million in 2024 and 322,138 in 2025.

Name

Virginia Department of Elections

Legal name

Virginia Department of Elections

Website

https://elections.virginia.gov

Company type

Public

Founded year

1946

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

The Virginia Department of Elections is a state government agency administering elections across Virginia's 133 localities, serving 6.4 million registered voters through voter registration, polling services, campaign finance oversight (COMET), accessible voting tools, and election security operations under statutory authority.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Government Election Administration

NAICS

Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support (921), Public Administration (92)

akta.pro primary industry

City Clerk/Records, Elections & Civic Engagement (BPAIACAB)

Keywords

• Voter registration services
• Election administration
• Campaign finance disclosure
• Absentee voting systems
• Accessible voting tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Richmond

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels9 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Virginia Department of Elections is the central state agency responsible for administering elections in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It operates voter registration services (online, mail, in-person), publishes real-time election results, oversees campaign finance disclosure through the COMET system, and provides accessible voting tools for voters with disabilities. The agency supports 133 local general registrars across 95 counties and 38 independent cities and provides multilingual election services in 11 languages.

Product overview

The Virginia Department of Elections operates a unified election administration platform comprising multiple interconnected voter-facing services. The core offering includes the Citizen Portal for voter registration, absentee requests, and status tracking; the Polling Place and Ballot Information Lookup Tool; and Election Night Reporting with JSON/CSV data access. Additional specialized modules include COMET for campaign finance disclosure tracking, an Electronic Ballot-Marking Tool for accessible voting, Ranked Choice Voting (adopted by Arlington County and Charlottesville City), and Early Voting/Same Day Registration systems. The product portfolio provides end-to-end election services from registration through results reporting, with accessibility accommodations built into each component.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Citizen Portal: Online portal for voter registration, absentee ballot applications, and voter information lookup

Products and services

• Citizen Portal
• Polling Place and Ballot Information Lookup Tool
• Ballot Scout
• BallotTrax (Fairfax County)
• COMET (Committee Electronic Tracking)
• Ranked Choice Voting
• Electronic Ballot-Marking Tool
• Early Voting System
• Same Day Voter Registration
• Voter Education Resources
• Election Night Reporting
• Accessible Voting Services

Quantifiable outcome

• 70.48% voter turnout in 2024 general election with 4.5 million voters participating
• +2 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2020VITA provides cyber services to the Virginia Department of Elections in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, supporting election security infrastructure and Best practices and security standards implementation
• Department of Homeland SecuritycoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2020Federal agency providing election security support and cyber threat assessment services to protect Virginia's electoral infrastructure
• Center for Internet Security (CIS)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2020CIS provides information about best practices and security standards to support Virginia's election security initiatives under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) program
• Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFederal program providing voting assistance to military and overseas citizens, offering the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) and Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) for Virginia's uniformed services and overseas voters
• Arlington CountycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFirst Virginia locality to adopt ranked choice voting for County Board primaries under HB1103 legislation, serving as a pilot for RCV implementation
• Charlottesville CitysecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerLocality that passed an ordinance adopting ranked choice voting for local primary elections under HB1103 legislation
• Federal Election CommissioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFederal agency providing campaign finance oversight guidance and regulations for federal office candidates in Virginia elections
• Office of the Attorney General (Virginia)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOAG reviews felony convictions to determine which offenses correlate to common law felonies from 1870 for voter eligibility determinations under the 2026 federal court order
• Secretary of the CommonwealthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRestoration of Rights process for felons whose voting rights have been stripped; manages the restore.virginia.gov portal for rights restoration applications
• Department of Motor Vehicles (Virginia)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDMV offices serve as NVRA-designated agencies providing voter registration services when citizens apply for or renew driver's licenses
• Department of Health (Virginia)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNVRA-designated agency required to offer voter registration opportunities when providing services
• Department of Social Services (Virginia)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNVRA-designated agency providing voter registration opportunities at TANF, SNAP, WIC, and Medicaid offices
• Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (Virginia)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNVRA-designated agency providing voter registration opportunities to clients of state-funded disability services programs
• Virginia Employment CommissionsecondaryChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNVRA-designated agency in Northern Virginia (Planning District 8) providing voter registration services

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• BallotTrax (by i3logix): Vendor providing the ballot tracking technology used by Fairfax County's BallotTrax implementation in Virginia and adopted by other jurisdictions. Comparable as a vendor whose product is integrated into Virginia's broader absentee ballot tracking ecosystem alongside the state-built Ballot Scout.
• Election Systems & Software (ES&S): Largest U.S. provider of voting machines and election management software to state and county election offices. Comparable because ES&S's product portfolio underpins the operational election infrastructure that Virginia ELECT and its local registrars depend on.

Direct peers

• California Secretary of State (Elections Division): Administers voter registration, election operations, and campaign finance for the largest U.S. state. Highly comparable because it performs the same end-to-end election administration functions as Virginia ELECT, including online voter registration, multilingual support, and accessible voting.
• Pennsylvania Department of State (Bureau of Elections): Pennsylvania's state-level election administration authority, managing voter registration and election reporting across the Commonwealth. Closely aligned in structure and responsibilities to Virginia ELECT.
• Texas Secretary of State (Elections Division): Manages Texas election law administration, voter registration, and election data publication. Functionally analogous to Virginia ELECT given its similar scope: maintaining the statewide voter file, certifying candidates, and publishing results.
• Florida Division of Elections: State-level election administration body under the Florida Department of State. Directly comparable to Virginia ELECT because it oversees voter registration, candidate filing, campaign finance disclosure, and election results reporting across Florida's 67 counties.
• Georgia Office of the Secretary of State - Elections Division: Georgia's state-level election administrative body, including the well-known ELECTIONS.GA voter information portal. Operates a comparable suite of voter registration, polling location lookup, and election night reporting tools.
• New York State Board of Elections: Bipartisan state agency administering New York's election laws and voter registration. Comparable in mandate to Virginia ELECT, including county board oversight, voter registration data, and campaign finance compliance.
• North Carolina State Board of Elections: Cabinet-level agency administering voter registration and elections in North Carolina. Provides a near-structural mirror to Virginia ELECT, including county-level oversight, statewide voter file, and campaign finance reporting systems.

Broad incumbents

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC): Federal independent agency that sets voluntary voting system guidelines and distributes HAVA funds to states. Relevant as the federal counterpart and funding source that Virginia ELECT coordinates with and that sets shared technical/compliance standards.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/vaelect
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/SBEvirginia
• Facebookfacebook.com/61634046094
• Instagraminstagram.com/va_election
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/vdot

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Virginia Department of Elections