Va. Orders 200,000 Additional Voter Registration Forms

[Wretched Excess]

I wonder which areas are going through registration forms?  did virginia's governor manage to reinstate
the voting rights for convicted felons, by the way?  I recall reading that he was trying to . . . .

Va. Orders 200,000 Additional Voter Registration Forms

RICHMOND, Sept. 14 -- Virginia elections officials have ordered an additional 200,000 voter registration forms because of shortages in some parts of the state and an expected crush of new registrants over the next three weeks.

The new forms, the first batch of which should arrive at state offices this week, were requested by the State Board of Elections after it distributed nearly 350,000 registration applications in July and August. Many were sent to county elections boards and the Department of Motor Vehicles, but groups trying to register voters also have gone through tens of thousands of applications.

"We are definitely seeing increased demand, but this is a presidential election year," said Nancy Rodrigues, secretary of the State Board of Elections. She noted that 250,000 registration forms normally last an entire year. "We are getting to the end of our pile, which his why we are being proactive in getting more printed."

With Virginia shaping up as a battleground state this election, presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) are rushing to register as many voters as possible before Virginia's Oct. 6 registration deadline.

Obama's campaign has been especially aggressive in trying to register new voters, believing they hold the key to his efforts to become the first Democratic presidential nominee since 1964 to win the state.

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[Wretched Excess]

more voter registration fun in virginia . . . . ah, hell.  the place where you register to vote is no big deal. 
hey, let 'em vote twice, or three times.  the more the merrier.  we just don't want the law to create any
"chilling effects" on anything . . . .

Student voting raises concerns
A registrar drew fire for pointing out possible effects of students' registering to vote.

A Montgomery County official's attempt to outline state elections law for thousands of Virginia Tech students this week prompted a swift reaction from Barack Obama campaign officials, who worried the statement could have a "chilling effect" on a massive registration effort now under way.

Montgomery County Registrar Randy Wertz said he wrote the news release, distributed through the county's Web site, amid concerns that the hundreds of Tech students registering to vote using their Blacksburg addresses would essentially change their permanent address. That, he wrote, could affect students' scholarships or tax filings and would obligate them to change car registrations and their driver's license to their permanent address.

But Obama campaign officials said they had never heard of students' dependency status on their parents' tax forms affected by their voter registration and added that other laws the release cited are rarely enforced or subject to interpretation. Wertz issued a second statement two days later, saying the county cannot give out tax advice.

"They thought we might be intimidating the students and keeping them from registering," Wertz said. "That certainly was not our intent."

The Obama campaign's response highlights the state's newly minted battleground status, but it is also reviving long-held concerns that a gray area in state election law regarding residency could leave college students vulnerable to having their registrations challenged because of their transient status. Language in the state law could be interpreted to bar students from using their college address if they consider their residence temporary.

Link

[DixieBelle]

Sigh. I just picked up a bunch of Dem party propaganda with voter registration forms in it. There is apparently some flyer that went out to VA residents. Someone left them on the sidewalk right by the front door and I threw them away because people kept stepping on them (trash cans must be a foreign concept). Anyway, they had little bios on the Dem candidates but I didn't pay much attention to it. I should have stuck them in the dog poop plastic baggie dispenser