09/28/14: Taking steps to make every vote count
This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.
VIRGINIANS heading to vote this November will be faced with yet another iteration of voter ID laws. On the front lines of the implementation of those laws are our local general registrars.
Many voters have had little, if any, contact with the registrar’s office, which exists in each of Virginia’s localities. I recall going to the registrar’s office on my 18th birthday to register — it was the thing to do back then.
With motor voter and registration drives held by outside groups, going to the registrar’s office is no longer the norm. In fact, you can register to vote — or update your registration — without leaving home by using the Department of Elections online tool at www.vote.virginia.gov.
How far we’ve come since 1900, when registration day was the second Tuesday of May, with an additional registration day 10 days prior to the November election. Registrars , who have existed since at least 1884, were required to work those two days to add voters to the rolls and make changes. Not until 1970 were general registrars required in all localities.
Over the years, the duties of the registrars have exploded. Voter registration is no longer a couple of days a year; instead, people have until 21 days before the election to register. Registrars handle absentee voting and juggle the weeks in which registration and absentee voting — 45 days before an election — overlap.
Virginia’s general registrars handle candidates’ campaign finance and disclosure filings, a task the clerks of courts used to do. They train and certify third-party groups to conduct registration drives. They need plans for emergency polling places, for the security of voting equipment, and for the protection of voter identity while allowing public access to records.
The most recent addition to the registrars’ to-do list: provide, at no cost to the voter, a photo identification card.
Virginia law now requires a photo ID to vote. To be valid, the photo ID must be issued by the government, an employer or an institute of higher learning in Virginia — and not have expired more than a year ago. That broad definition includes U.S. passports, student ID cards and military IDs.
Perhaps the most common photo ID is a driver’s license. Last week, the State Board of Elections reported that more than 200,000 Virginia voters — roughly 4 percent of the more than 5.2 million registered — lack a Virginia driver’s license or a state-issued photo ID. About 4,500 of those are in Virginia Beach and about 2,100 in Norfolk.
Voters lacking valid photo ID can obtain one from their local registrar’s office before the election. The Norfolk registrar is hosting Voter Photo ID events across the city, including three in early October: Oct. 1 at the Norview Community Center; Oct. 3 at the Southside Aquatics Center; and Oct. 10 at the Pretlow Library. For details about the events, visit the Norfolk office of elections webpage.
Registrars encourage voters to get their photo IDs in advance of the election. However, those who come to the polls without one will not be turned away. If you are a registered voter, the registrar may be able to issue a photo ID that day.
If not, all still is not lost. Those without a valid photo ID may cast a provisional ballot — though those ballots are not counted unless the voter presents a valid photo ID by noon on the Friday after the election.
As much as I disagree with photo ID requirements — a solution in search of a problem — they are the law. I’m pleased to see Virginia’s registrars doing so much to ensure every vote counts.