City hopes to ward off election confusion

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Residents told to check for updated voter registration cards after redistricting

By Candace Sipos -- csipos@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- With an entirely new House of Delegates district in Frederick County and freshly redrawn lines in the city, this November's general election has the potential to be a confusing one. Officials say they're doing their best to prevent any chaos, but voters have to do their part as well.

"Unless there's an election, people don't think about voter registration," said Joyce Braithwaite, registrar for the city of Winchester.

The City Council began redrawing Winchester district lines in March, so there are hundreds of people living in new wards and many of them don't know it yet. Ten years ago, when redistricting occurred after the last census, many local residents showed up to the wrong polling places claiming they never received information about the change.

"People are so busy nowadays that I guess they don't take time to read anything," Braithwaite said, noting that the voter cards containing that information sent out by the city probably ended up in the trash.

"I think of lot of people thought it was junk mail," she said, adding that "lots of people moved and somehow or another they think we know".

The city registrar's office has been relieved this time around of sending out the required information informing people of any major change in district lines or polling places. For the first time ever, the Virginia State Board of Elections took over that duty, Braithwaite said.

"Basically, this is one of the very rare instances where cards will need to be mass produced at the state level," said Justin Riemer, confidential policy adviser with Virginia SBE.

Riemer said that all voters who need new information will be sent a new voter card within 15 days of the election. Winchester residents haven't received them yet because the city didn't hold a primary, and residents who live in those jurisdictions with primaries received their cards first. The SBE has sent out about 1.7 million new voter cards already, and Riemer said he expects the board will send "at least as many for the general election".

Riemer said Winchester enacted its new plan at the end of July, but some localities still haven't turned in their plans and may wait until after the election to do so. Winchester was spared more than $8,000, according to Braithwaite, by putting in this information in time for the state to send out cards, and that's if the city only had to mail out cards once.

Often, city officials must resend many of the cards to new addresses. Riemer said the state is using both federal and state funds for this process, but board officials aren't sure yet how much it will cost.

Although it may cause some confusion, Braithwaite said she's happy about the ward redrawing and addition of a new precinct, because it should allow lines to move faster this time around.

"People were waiting in line for a hour, an hour and a half [last November] to vote," she said, noting that she knew one voter who has been voting consistently his entire adult life but didn't vote last year because the lines were too long. He returned to the polls three separate times only to find the same situation.

City Councilman Evan Clark voted against the redistricting plan, but he said he doesn't think it will cause problems in the election.

"I do not anticipate that there will be huge numbers of people going to the wrong place," Miller said.

As for Frederick County, registrar Rick Miller said his office is "just carrying forward with our normal preparation." This includes putting information on the county website and getting the word out through local media.

He is hopeful that the general election will run smoothly with the addition of the 10th House District, because the primary "went very well". Some voters called and asked whether they were in the 10th District, he added, but no one was hindered from voting because of the change.