Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Task force offers new election guidelines
The proposal says college students need not plan on remaining in the state to vote in it.
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From The Roanoke Times
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RICHMOND -- A state board of elections task force has proposed regulations that will make it easier for college students to register to vote where they go to school, but the panel disagreed on another aspect of defining a voter's residence.
The task force on Monday effectively wrapped up work on proposed regulations that could help guide local registrars in handling applications submitted by students who list their campus addresses as their voting residences.
Registrars in college communities were flooded last year with student applications reporting their campus addresses as their permanent residences.
Without clear state guidelines, registrars took differing approaches to the situation. The General Assembly passed legislation this year calling on the board of elections to clarify the regulations.
The task force's proposal states that a college student "does not need specific intent to stay in the college jurisdiction beyond graduation" in order to qualify to vote in that locality. The regulations list students and military as examples, but do not create specific exceptions for any group.
"I'm glad we came to a conclusion on the students; it tickles me to death ," said Radford Registrar Tracy Howard, a member of the task force. The panel includes registrars, voting rights groups and the state's major political parties.
Howard took heat last fall for questioning the registration applications of Radford University students who listed their dormitories as their residences. Howard said he was following existing law, which requires voters to establish both a "place of abode" and "domicile" -- or intent to remain. The new regulations state the duration or expiration of a lease "shall not be a determining factor" of intent.
Howard voted against a draft of the new regulations after the task force eliminated language that would deny an applicant who has "a specific intent to abandon his current location at a fixed date in the immediate future." Some members argued that such a provision is needed to keep voters from gaming the system and routinely changing their registrations to influence certain elections. The provision was not aimed at students.
The state board of elections will act on the task force proposal next month, likely too late to implement the changes in time for this year's general election. The new regulations must be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice before going into effect.
