This assumption is flat-out incorrect. Virginia statute explicitly refers to "early voting" as "[a]bsentee voting in person." Va. Code Ann. § 24.2-701.1. If Mr. Dreyer had been familiar with the terminology used by election officials, the answer Mr. Dreyer should have provided the officer of election when asked whether he had voted absentee would have been "yes." That would have avoided all of the ensuing confusion. With this context, an "unsettling Election Day story," becomes nothing more than another example of the system working.