Few voters register on deadline day

By: Tyler Whitley | Times-Dispatch
Published: October 05, 2009

Registrars reported scant activity today on the last day to register to vote.

By mid-day, Richmond's registrar Kirk Showalter was not aware of anyone coming into her office at City Hall to sign up to vote.

Her explanation was simple:

"Everybody in the world seemed to register last year," before the presidential election.

As of Thursday, there were about 100,000 fewer registered voters in Virginia than there were at the end of 2008, when the presidential election brought an unusual surge in voter applications.

Still almost 5 million people will be registered to vote in the Nov. 3 elections, when voters select a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and members of the House of Delegates and some local officers.

Showalter also said the city sent out 14,000 change of address forms earlier this year and a lot of people signed up then rather than waiting to come in at the last minute.

In Republican-leaning Chesterfield County, there also was little activity. Lawrence C. Haake III, the registrar, said about a dozen had signed up as the deadline approached today.

"I can't imagine there were too many left after last year," he said.

In Hanover County, registrar Robert Ostergren said there was a small increase in sign-ups during the last few days, but the county has had more absentee-ballot requests than voter registration applications.

Mark Coakley, registrar in Henrico County, said business was so slight that only one person was assigned to key in new applicants. But 21 people came into the office to get absentee ballots, he said.

Registrars emphasized that today was the deadline to register only for those not already registered.

Meanwhile, the State Board of Elections and the U.S. Justice Department failed to reach agreement on an absentee-ballot issue that arose before last year's presidential election.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Williams ruled last December, following the presidential campaign, that the State Board of Elections violated federal law by mailing absentee ballots to military personnel overseas too late for them to return the ballots in time to vote. The ruling followed a lawsuit brought by the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Williams urged the State Board and the U.S. Department of Justice to fashion a remedy that would prevent such missteps in the future.

The two parties met at the federal courthouse today, but could not reach an agreement, Nancy Rodriques, Secretary of the State Board of Elections, said.

The late absentee ballots were not counted because the 4,750 ballots in question did not effect the outcome of the election, won by Barack Obama in Virginia and nationally.

Although a party to the suit, the State Board of Elections did not mail out the tardy ballots. They were sent out by local registrars who report to the state board.