VPAP's election pages you see tonight are just 1 of 3 versions we have built to get us thru this brave new world of 'election week.' With some luck, Phase 1 will end around midnight as localities report Election Day votes and most early votes in 'central absentee precincts'

Each locality (except the city of Norton) have a Central Absentee Precinct, which consolidates all in-person early votes and mail ballots. There's a huge increase this year -- more than 2.7M votes, or at least half of all ballots expected to be cast in Virginia.

Expect many localities to report their votes (including absentees) early tonight. But in some places mail ballots could bog things down. You can't just run these thru the scanner. Officials must validate they are complete and the voter is qualified. Each can take 1-3 minutes.

The concern is that some localities with large populations will get deluged with last-minute deliveries of mail ballots. (Henrico had 5,800 delivered today) Or some smaller counties could underestimate the time needed to get all the mail ballots counted.

If localities get overwhelmed, @vaELECT has issued guidance to stop counting at 11PM tonight and report the results available at that time in their Central Absentee Precincts. They can come back the next day and continue counting -- which brings us to Phase 2 of election week