Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Editorial: Absentee voters still face delays
The state needs more power to ensure overseas absentee ballots go out on time.
From the RoundTable blog
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Last year, more than 2,000 Virginians were denied their right to vote on Election Day. They were citizens abroad, mostly members of the armed forces and their families but also Americans who work or just live in another country.
They had problems voting because some local registrars sent out absentee ballots late, leaving insufficient time to return them by Election Day.
The General Assembly updated election rules to prevent that from happening again. The previous, poorly written language only urged registrars to send out absentee ballots by 45 days before the election. Now, the law requires them to do so.
Yet registrars in 16 localities missed that mandatory deadline this year. Most had reasonable explanations.
For example, Montgomery County, the only locality in these parts that sent its ballots late, ran into problems with an unusually complicated set of races. It had to print a dozen different ballots to reflect the permutations of overlapping electoral contests. That is twice as many as it has ever done before for a single election, and it still got the ballots out only one business day late.
Nevertheless, technically Montgomery County and the others did miss the deadline. Overseas voters deserve better. They do not abdicate their right to vote when they leave the nation's borders, especially when it is in America's service.
Unfortunately, lawmakers gave the new mandate no teeth. When they convene next year, they should rectify that.
The easiest penalty might be to withhold state dollars from registrars who miss the deadline, but that would be a mistake. They already struggle with inadequate funding.
The better policy would be to empower the State Board of Elections to intervene in localities where there are chronic problems. If registrars must worry about the shame of Richmond sweeping in to take over their jobs for a year or two, it would be strong incentive indeed to ensure everyone can vote.
