For immediate release: October 17
For more information,
contact:
Many Virginia
precincts at risk of long lines on Election
Day
Virginia voting groups warn
that new registrations, limited resources
combine to leave some localities no room for
error
A huge increase in voter
registrations statewide, combined with a
decision on the part of many localities to
continue using only touchscreen voting
machines, means voters in some areas should
expect long lines this Election Day.
The number of registered voters in Virginia
climbed by more than 300,000 this year,
according to the State Board of Elections (SBE).
This, coupled with the expected record
turnout rate for this year's Presidential
election, would have posed challenges for
many jurisdictions under any circumstances.
However, the problem is likely to be greater
in localities that still use direct record
electronic voting machines (DREs) as their
only method of voting on Election Day. Some
localities have barely the statutory minimum
number of DREs, currently one machine per
750 registered voters, and a few may not
have even that many, once the last
registrations have been processed. And some
voter groups say that the legal minimum is
not nearly great enough to serve all the
voters expected to turn out for this
election.
"We would prefer to see one DRE per no more
than 500 voters," said Ivy Main, Policy
Director of the election reform group New
Era for Virginia." And even below 500 you
might see problems if there are local races
or bond issues that keep each voter standing
at the machines for two minutes or more."
Joseph Waymack of the Southern Coalition for
Secured Voting also expressed concern over
Virginia's standard, noting that North
Carolina uses one DRE for every 250 voters.
Dr. Alex Blakemore of Virginia Verified
Voting analyzed the numbers of registered
voters and the number of available DREs
across the state, as reported to the SBE, to
determine which localities were at greatest
risk. His research showed that a number of
jurisdictions are close to the minimum
requirement, and many more fall into the
500-750 range. (Please see chart
at
http://virginia-organizing.org/voterg.pdf.
Note that numbers are based on registrations
posted as of September 30.)
Many of the jurisdictions at greatest risk
have relatively small populations, but some
are of special concern because they have
multiple races on the ballot. Suffolk, for
example, has mayoral, city council and
school board races on the ballot in addition
to the presidential and congressional races.
With 670 voters per DRE, voters may face
significant wait times. And Staunton would
need just 12 more voters in one of its
precincts to exceed the statutory minimum.
The largest jurisdiction of concern is
Prince William County, with 392 DREs for
206,956 registered voters -- an average of
528 voters per machine.
"That ratio suggests we might see long lines
at some Prince William precincts, though the
short ballot this year will make up somewhat
for the higher turnout," said Dr. Blakemore.
"But the question you then have to ask is,
what happens if the machines break down?"
Some DREs break down in almost every
statewide election, he pointed out, so the
local electoral board's backup plan is
crucial to the election proceeding smoothly.
With no surplus of machines to replace ones
that are not quickly repaired and put back
into operation, the ability to provide
voters with paper ballots will be critical.
However, the county has announced plans to
provide only 300 paper ballots to each
precinct, regardless of the number of voters
registered for that location. "With some
precincts having more than 4,000 registered
voters, 300 ballots would not last long,"
Dr. Blakemore pointed out. "And then what?"
His group, as well as New Era for Virginia
and other voter groups in the Verifiable
Voting Coalition of Virginia (VVCV),
believes the SBE should direct all the
jurisdictions that use DREs to prepare a
number of paper ballots equal to at least 25
percent of the number of registered voters,
and to begin using them immediately if a
machine breaks down.
Because the official ballots can't be just
photocopied as needed on Election Day
without a cumbersome authorization process,
the groups say, it would be better to start
out with too many ballots, and have to
recycle the leftovers, than to start with
too few, and risk losing the votes of those
who can't wait.
It would have been even better, Dr.
Blakemore added, if jurisdictions like
Prince William County had followed the lead
of counties like Fairfax and Arlington,
which used DREs in past years but purchased
optical scanning machines this year. With
this system, voters mark paper ballots and
feed them into a scanner, a system that can
accommodate many more voters. The two
counties will offer both voting methods this
November in every precinct, and plan to have
enough paper ballots for every registered
voter.
Voters who prefer the touchscreen machines
will be able to vote on them, but Dr.
Blakemore encourages voters to choose paper
ballots, which provide a paper trail and
will be preserved for use in the case of a
recount. And because the scanning process is
so fast, wait times are minimal. "Fairfax
County even plans to have clipboards
available so that voters who don't want to
wait for a privacy booth can vote using
paper ballots as soon as they have been
checked in," said Blakemore.
In addition to Fairfax and Arlington
Counties, the cities of Williamsburg and
Charlottesville purchased optical scanning
machines this year. Suffolk purchased one
such machine to serve its largest precinct,
freeing up some DREs to use in other
precincts.
______________________
The Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia
formed in 2006 to advocate for legislation
making the voting process more secure and
reliable, and to provide voters with a
voter-verifiable paper audit trail.
Successful initiatives have included the ban
on new DRE purchases, improved certification
requirements for election machines, a ban on
highly-insecure wireless communication in
new voting machines, and improved procedures
for election recounts. The VVCV includes
Virginia Verified Voting, the League of
Women Voters of Virginia, New Era for
Virginia, Common Cause, the Southern
Coalition for Secured Voting, and the
Virginia Organizing Project, among others.
