Saturday, August 29, 2009
Proposal addresses voters' residency
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roanoke.com/politics
RICHMOND -- The state board of elections all but completed work Friday on proposed voter residency regulations that would allow college students to register at their campus addresses while giving registrars the discretion to question incomplete or contradictory information on application forms.
The board is scheduled to vote this morning on regulations that were largely developed by a task force that included registrars, representatives of the state's major political parties and voting rights groups. The new regulations would help registrars handle applications from students who list their campus addresses as their voting residences.
"In my mind, it improves the process a lot because I now have a piece of paper that, in black and white terms, tells me what I can and cannot do," said Radford voter Registrar Tracy Howard, a member of the task force. "That's all I've been asking for for 17 years."
Howard last year questioned 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.
Draft regulations shaped by the board of elections Friday state that "a college student does not need specific intent to stay in the college jurisdiction beyond graduation" to establish domicile. Nor do military members and their spouses need to stay in a jurisdiction beyond their tour of duty to vote there.
Howard and other registrars opposed the draft regulations produced by the task force, arguing that the proposal provided no checks on voters who would establish residency in one locality solely to manipulate the outcome of an election. But the board on Friday reinserted language that would give registrars the ability to snuff out such efforts.
"A lot of progress has been made because they have answered the questions we had concerning being able to float the vote," Howard said. "There's recognition that that could possibly happen and they've given us the tools back to ask about that. That was a very positive thing."
