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Piles of of voter registration forms await processing City Registrar Juanita Pitchford processes voter registration forms in City Hall. In the past few weeks, the office has received large numbers of new voter registration forms. |
BY SUSANNAH CLARK
On the first day Virginians could vote absentee in-person, 10 people had already done so by mid-afternoon at the Fredericksburg registrar's office.
"To already have 10 people sign up is unreal," said Juanita Pitchford, registrar for Fredericksburg. "It's so early on and so much excitement has already been generated."
Fredericksburg is ranked 10th of the 25 localities with the greatest increase in registered voters in Virginia, according to data from the State Board of Elections.
With 940 new registered voters as of Monday, Fredericksburg's electorate has grown 7.77 percent in 2008. The city now has more than 12,000 registered voters.
Richmond is at the top of the list, increasing its registeration by 10.43 percent. King George County is ranked 13th on the list with a 7.16 percent increase, while Stafford is ranked 16th at 6.92 percent and Spotsylvania is 20th at 6.51 percent.
According to Pitchford, the registrar's office in Fredericksburg received 247 registration applications during a three-day period. Pitchford estimates that door-to-door registration alone has brought in about 50 applications a day.
"All different kinds of people are registering across the board," Pitchford said. "Young people are going door-to-door to register voters and bringing in stacks of applications. This surpasses anything I've seen in the past."
The Community Voters' Project, a nonpartisan campaign for registering voters, has enticed people to work door-to-door in Fredericksburg with an hourly pay of $8 to $10.
With the exception of Manassas Park, which is ranked eighth on the list, the top 10 localities with increased registration have all voted Democratic in recent statewide elections.
Kirk Showalter, registrar for Richmond, attributes the city's high registration rate to voter drives sponsored by Democratic activists.
"Because there are four colleges in Richmond, Democratic groups have hosted voter drives targetting young voters," Showalter said.
Patricia Ann Brendel, registrar for Republican-leaning Manassas Park, also said that a large number of the newly registered voters were young.
"We hosted a voter drive at Manassas Park High School at the end of last spring," said Brendel. "It was very successful, we registered 70 young voters that day."
Virginia has 280,000 newly registered voters thus far. Nine out of every 10 of those voters will be voting in Virginia for the first time.
Susannah Clark: 540/374-5000,
Email: smclark@freelancestar.com
| Applications for registering to vote in the Nov. 6 election must be in your locality's voter registration office or postmarked by Monday, Oct. 6. |
| People encouraged to vote absentee include college students, commuters, members of the military, persons traveling overseas and any other registered voter who will be not present in their precinct on Election Day.
Absentee ballot applications to vote by mail must be in the voter registration office by Oct. 28. The last day for in-person absentee voting is Nov. 1. |
| The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia mailed letters to all 185 police chiefs in Virginia, asking each to immediately initiate programs to educate local law enforcement personnel on the right of individuals to engage in door-to-door voter registration. The letters were sent after persons going door-to-door to register voters were told by local officials that the activity violated a local ordinance or policy.
According to Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, the Supreme Court has struck down every local ordinance that attempts to prevent door-to-door registration. "The right to go door-to-door to register voters, to canvass for candidates or to promote one's religious beliefs is deeply ingrained in the American landscape, both legally and culturally," Willis said. A copy of the ACLU's letter to Virginia's police chiefs can be found at acluva.org. |
