CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Election Day is just one of dozens of days when Chesterfield County election staff and volunteers count absentee ballots to tally up the high-stakes midterm races in Central Virginia. Chesterfield County Absentee Manager Tangela Kersey took 8News behind the scenes at the county's General Registrar building where thousands of ballots were being counted. After receiving absentee ballots from the post office, Kersey said the first step is placing ballots in a Tritek machine. "They sort them by magisterial district and also by precinct once they run through the Tritek machine," she said. A Tritek machine sorts Chesterfield County absentee ballots by magisterial district and precinct. Ballots sorted by district are collected in bins after passing through a Tritek machine. After confirming a ballot is received, election workers physically make sure the ballot inside the B envelope is counted in the "Central Absentee Precinct" (CAP) room. It's a back-and-forth process for verification and security, with help from digital tablets called "Poll Pads." "We do what we call a 'Cure' process to make sure that the B envelope is correct and make sure all the demographics are correct; to make sure that name, address, signature, year and last four of the Social Security number is correct before presenting the bundles to CAP to process, to mark into our Poll Pads and then run them through the high-speed tabulator." By Virginia code, the Central Absentee Precinct receives, counts and records absentee ballots. That tabulator -- an Election Systems and Software DS450 -- is able to count more than a thousand ballots at a time. A DS450 tabulator records ballot results before the ballots are sealed away. After tabulating, operators place the ballots in large, sealed envelopes and send them to the Chesterfield Circuit Court Clerk's office for storage. This year, those ballots document a contested midterm election in which the balance of power in Congress is at stake. "Every election is different. Every election is exciting," Kersey said. Kersey told 8News that she's learned a different lesson each year since starting at the General Registrar's office in 2019. For these 2026 midterms, Kersey says that lesson is patience. ...read more read less