Suffering Suffrage
JGFitzgerald -- January 9th, 2008
There appear to be significant misperceptions floating around out there about who can and can’t vote in the Feb 12 VA primary. The information below was gathered by frequent commenter DebSF, and is hereby posted without any regard for my conflict of interest in the matter.
Many think they couldn’t vote on the 12th because they’d never registered for either party in VA, even though they are registered voters. Or because they thought that voting in the primary would cause them to be registered for one of the parties. Or because they think they’re registered independent and can’t vote in a party event. This stuff came from people one would generally consider politically aware.
To answer the numerous questions: ANY REGISTERED VOTER IN VIRGINIA CAN VOTE IN THE FEBRUARY PRIMARY
VA doesn’t ask you for your party affiliation when you register. If you’re registered to vote by Jan. 14, you can vote on Feb. 12. If you’re already registered, all you have to do is show up at the polls. VA doesn’t know or care if you’re a Dem, a Pub, a Green, a Libertarian, or a Pastafarian (the party of the giant flying spaghetti monster ). If you’re registered, you can vote.
VA will effectively be running 2 simultaneous elections on Feb 12: one for the Dems and one for the Repubs.
Those candidates who have turned in their paperwork and been certified are on the ballot (this happened starting in Nov. of last year and the process finished about 12 days ago). Two sets of ballots have been printed. When you go to the polls, you’ll be asked all the usual stuff, showing your ID, etc. Then you’ll be asked if you want a Repub ballot or a Dem ballot. You can choose either one, but you can’t vote in both primaries.
And after last night’s results from the NH primary, it’s looking more and more like the VA primary on Tuesday, Feb. 12 could matter very much in determining both the Dem and Pub presidential candidates. This is, more than ever, a wide-open race on both sides, for the first time in many years.
If you’re not registered, you need to pick up a form, fill it out, and mail it back or drop it off. If you mail your form and miss this deadline, you’re still going to be on the books and able to vote in the November election (for president, U.S. Senator, sixth district representative, and city council).
You can register to vote year-round except during the 28 days prior to a general or primary election, so you don’t have much time if you want to vote in the Feb. 12 VA primary; registration forms must be in the hands of the registrar of your locality by Monday Jan. 14
You can find a voter registration form here.
Or you can pick up a form at your local voter registration office or these places:
* Military recruitment offices
* Public assistance agency offices
* Many Citizen Information Desks in County/city Government Center lobby
* Department of Motor Vehicles offices
After you fill out the form, it needs to get to your registrar by Monday Jan. 14 in order for you to be able to vote in the Feb. 12 primary. So go for it!
Some of the confusion may have come from news coverage of these bills from last year, which would have required voters to claim their party affiliation.
Please note that the sponsor of this bill wants to be Virginia’s next governor.
Correction, finnegan – Bob Marshall wants to be Virginia’s next senator, not governor.
(I heard) Virginia GOP was trying to require anybody who voted in their primary to take an oath that they would support whoever was the Republican candidate in the general election. Did that ever go through?
Mille grazie for calling my attention to this deadline. Think I can juuuuuuust get under the registration wire for the February primary – and man oh man, do I want to do that.
Eso,
No. It didn’t.
Yeah. Senator.
Too many RSS headlines tangled up in my head.
Adam, Brent,
Don’t get bogged down in the details. Focus on the fact that Marshall wants to be Virginia’s next anything.
Fitzy I would think you would support party registration. These primaries are being held by the parties and it should be their business who they let vote in them.
This subject has nothing to do with principles like ease of voting or open government. Virginia is one of a handful of states that has open primaries. In fact, more primaries would occur in Virginia if we allowed closed primaries because Republicans and Democrats alike are weary of holding open primaries for fear independents or partisans will tilt the vote.
My favorite example is in 1992 Republicans voted in the Virginia Democratic primary and Jesse Jackson won Virginia!
Grozet,
Please refrain from Bushy nicknames. It’s childish.
Starting next Thursday (1/14) you can also vote absentee in the Primary, by going in to the County Voter Registrar and completing an absentee ballot.
Or you can download an absentee ballot application, fill it out, mail it in, and the Registrar will mail you an Absentee Ballot to complete and return by mail. All absentee ballots must be returned by February 9, 2008.
Technically, you should be able to vote absentee on Monday 1/14. But according to the H’burg registrar, they’re not at all sure that the ballots will be there on time for Monday; absentee balloting may not start till sometime later next week. Apparently the fact the VA was kind of late in certifying all the candidates has made the difference this time around. According to Debbie Logan, after they are printed they’re tested at the state level, sent to the localities and then tested locally on the machines people will use to vote.
My son Chris and I went down to the registrar on Tuesday to get the scoop as he’s going back to UVA on Sunday. I vote absentee too because I’m an election judge in the Stone Spring precinct, but live in Keister. The precinct, not the school. Chris ended up filling out the absentee application instead.
Debbie Logan also told me today (via email) that the sample ballots will be posted on the City Registrar’s website when her office receives them.
Deb, thanks for that correction (I’m flipping back and forth between January, February on my calendar). Any idea why Fairfax county has already begun absentee voting?
In Rockingham, you can reach the Registrar at 564-3055 to determine when they will have the ballots.
Here is a link to the Virginia State Board of Elections page that allows you to find your voter registration and gives you contact info for your Registrar – anywhere in Virginia.
Bubby, I’m not sure; maybe ballots for the largest precincts were printed and delivered first, saving the smaller and quicker print jobs for last? As of Tuesday, city ballots were at the printers and in the queue, but weren’t yet actually printed yet.
Something I had not known (Old Dog Learns New Trick):
So…if you will be 18 on November 4, 2008, you can register NOW to vote in the Election, AND the Virginia Primary next month!
JGFitzgerald-
Get a sense of humor . . . it would behoove you to respond to an argument instead of trying to brush it off.
Oh, believe me, he does have a sense of humor. Although you may not appreciate it, being a college Republican and all.
Anyway, back to the topic of primaries, a friend recently had a question: WHERE do you vote in the primaries. Is it the same place you normally vote in a regular election?
The answer is YES, you vote in the same location you always vote at.
Grozet,
In a closed primary, the state pays for a party function. Forty percent of the electorate, or more, can’t participate.
The state should not pay for party functions, any more than it should provide corporate welfare or faith-based services.
I think that its ironic that Republicans are lobbying for closed primaries after screwing so many precincts out of their representation by voting in the dems open primary.
Figured since Finnegan believes CRs don’t have a sense of humor I would pose this very question to my readers.
http://vacollegerepublicans.blogspot.com/2008/01/does-grozet-lack-sense-of-humor.html
Good grief.
Grozet, I never saw your comment. So I didn’t see your poll until now. You wrote, “Finnegan implies being a CR somehow undermines ones ability to have a sense of humor.”
I didn’t imply any such thing. I was referring to Joe’s sense of humor, not yours. I never said you didn’t have one. I said you may not appreciate it.
The fact that you made a poll claiming I implied something I didn’t, indicates to me your insecurity about your own sense of humor. I’m sure your colleagues’ comments didn’t help that.
“Oh, believe me, he does have a sense of humor. Although you may not appreciate it, being a college Republican and all”.
I suppose in a convoluted way this argument could be seen as saying that Joe’s humor is abhorent or not-funny to CRs. It is your argument . . .
Anyway, hopefully nobody was too offended by my little poll. I had a little fun and heck, the CRs only maintain their sense of humor by a mere three votes!