Va. braces for record Election Day turnout

By Tyler Whitley
Media General News Service

Published: October 27, 2008

Virginia election officials say they are prepared for a record voter turnout on Election Day, but voters who show up during rush hours can still expect to wait in line.

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A huge turnout brings the potential for problems, such as whether, or how, registrars will enforce a state ban on voters wearing shirts or buttons that explicitly endorse a candidate.

Four years ago during the presidential election, 71 percent of Virginia’s registered voters cast ballots. A record 3.2 million voted.

But about 4.5 million were registered in 2004. This year, the voter rolls top 5 million. If the same percentage voted, about 300,000 more would cast ballots this year, notes Nancy Rodrigues, secretary of the State Board of Elections.

She expects even more, and she says the state is ready for them.

The state has about 4,600 more voting machines than the 10,000 that were used in 2004, she said. It has created nearly 300 additional polling places.

Moreover, the state, through an intensive effort, has signed up 10,000 more people to work at the voting precincts on Nov. 4. There will be 30,000 poll workers, and the state has identified 5,000 more who can be enlisted on Election Day if needed, Rodrigues added.

“If you go during peak time, you probably will have to wait,“ Rodrigues said. “If you go off-peak, you might not have to.“

Peak times are early in the morning from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., when people are going to work; during lunchtime, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and late in the afternoon, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. when they are going home.

The polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. People standing in line when the polls close are allowed to vote.

One factor in the wait could be the State Board of Elections’ policy to bar from the polls the wearing of T-shirts, campaign stickers, buttons or other materials that expressly advocate a candidate.

Edith M. Harrington, registrar in Virginia Beach, which has 283,000 registered voters, says poll workers there will not have time to enforce the ban, according to The Associated Press.

The policy is “a very impractical thing to enforce,“ she said.

On Saturday, according to AP, the state board issued expanded guidelines, recommending that someone who is unwilling to remove or cover an item should not be turned away from the polls.

Speaking of the upcoming election, Rodrigues said: “I think we are prepared for what we know. It’s what we don’t know that concerns us.“

For example, there was an ice storm in parts of Virginia the day before the Feb. 12 presidential primary. To prepare for bad weather, Rodrigues has matched each polling precinct to the electric utility that serves it.

Some local registrars are not as optimistic things will go smoothly, especially in Northern Virginia. Consider that there are about 681,000 registered voters in Fairfax County alone.

Judy Brown, Loudoun County’s registrar, predicted a “rough” election night. The county has 1,100 workers ready for Nov. 4, but nearly 18,000 new voters, she said.

Loudoun and Fairfax counties halted counting mail-in ballots last week when it was discovered that duplicate ballots were being mailed out in several localities. Election officials said computers are programmed to reject duplicate ballots.

Registrars said waiting until Election Day to count the ballots could slow the returns.

The state board has urged those who can cast absentee ballots—by meeting one of 17 criteria—to do so. Rodrigues said by the end of last week about 110,000 absentee ballots had been cast and 220,000 applications had been received.

In 2004, a total of 222,000 were cast. Rodrigues expects considerably more this year, given the high interest in the contest between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

A number of outside groups have expressed concern that Virginia is not prepared for the election. Registrars dispute this.

Some of the outside groups suggest that Virginia is bound to have long lines because it takes three minutes to vote. But Rodrigues said people voting absentee on machines are taking no more than a minute.

Most people will only vote in three contests, choosing candidates for president, the U.S. Senate and a House of Representatives seat, she pointed out. There are no constitutional amendments on the ballot.

A Washington-based group said Richmond is ill-prepared in majority-black precincts for a heavy wave of black voters and needs to move more voting equipment into those precincts.

Kirk Showalter, Richmond’s registrar, noted that the machines are apportioned according to a formula based on the number of registered voters.

“We don’t have voter registration by race,“ she added.

U.S. attorneys in Virginia said they are prepared to handle any complaints of election fraud and voting-rights abuses in consultation with the U.S. Department of Justice.