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Lynchburg election officials gear up for Nov. 4
(News & Advance, The (Lynchburg, VA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 5--Long hours and a dedicated team of volunteers have helped Lynchburg election officials process 7,000 new voter registrations in the past month alone, according to registrar Pat Bower.
"I think things have gone very well, simply because we've been lucky enough to get great volunteers, which has made all the difference," said Bower, whose small office was initially overwhelmed by the unprecedented surge in registrations.
Excitement about the presidential race has caused the city's voter rolls to swell to record heights. A total of 14,000 new voters have been signed up so far this year -- half of those since Sept. 1.
The registrar's office is still plowing through a backlog of forms, and new registrations could yet roll in. The deadline to file is Monday.
Bower, who's enlisted a team of 25 volunteers to help process all the paperwork before the formal polling books are printed up, said everyone who registers in time will be able to vote on the big day, although some names may have to be added to the books by hand.
Those type of last-minute changes or "polling book adjustments" are not unheard of, according to the registrar.
"We'll get through it," she said.
Election Day will cost the city a little bit more this year, in part due to the need for extra precinct workers.
Bower said around 50 additional people will be deployed on Election Day to manage operations at the city's 17 different voting sites.
The final team will number around 200 or so, with each person receiving a small stipend for their service. In 2004, the number of poll workers used was 155.
Bower, in prior comments to City Council, said she would likely seek additional funding during the regular third-quarter budget review to cover the extra expense.
The chief force driving Lynchburg's last-minute influx of registrations has been Liberty University, which has mounted an active campaign calling on students to vote locally in the upcoming election, rather than casting an absentee ballot in their hometowns.
The school has succeeded in getting around 3,500 students to register, doubling the voter rolls at Heritage Elementary School, the precinct encompassing the LU campus.
City Council recently called on Commissioner of the Revenue Mitch Nuckles to explain whether there was any tax advantage to be had in the transfer of these student voters.
Nuckles, who's charged with overseeing several different local taxes, said a bump in revenue was a possibility, but added there was very little likelihood his office would be able to ensure the students were in compliance with the law.
By registering to vote in Lynchburg, the students were declaring the city to be their place of residence, Nuckles said. Those owning cars would, in turn, be required to change their vehicle registration and pay personal property taxes to the city.
"That would apply for everybody, not just college students," he said in a later interview.
The potential revenue gain was unclear, given that many students might not own cars and others may be driving vehicles registered in their parents' names, in which case a transfer would not be required.
Those muddying factors would make it difficult, if not impossible, for his office to determine which students are affected by the requirement and which are in or out of compliance, Nuckles said.
"There's probably not anything I can do," he said. "I can't assume just because they register to vote, they have a car."
Compliance would be left up to the individual's conscience, he concluded.
Virginia law concerning student voters is widely considered to be unclear by election officials across the state. Several communities have struggled with the issue this year, including Montgomery County and Norfolk.
The Radford registrar recently called on the General Assembly to clarify the requirements, a request made in the past by others to no avail.
"A lot of registrars have asked the General Assembly to do that for years, and they've never listened to us," said Bower, who's also wrestled with the current legal language. "Maybe they will after this."
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