We spent fifteen and a half hours at the polls in Virginia Beach on Tuesday, along with many, many other volunteers. We left very impressed with the dedicated election officials who arrived at O'dark hundred in the pouring rain and stayed for hours after the polls closed, all for little or no pay. These election officials toiled well past the point of exhaustion, determined to move long lines of voters through the voting process in a dignified, fair, and accurate manner.
We were also impressed by the determined voters of every stripe, type, and background who waited patiently and cheerfully for hours to make sure that their vote was cast and counted.
We remain convinced that we have a fundamentally honest but somewhat flawed electoral system, strained but certainly not overwhelmed by the number of voters in this pivotal election.
So we found the Virginian-Pilot headlines this morning intriguing: vote counting delays and snafus, and those predictable investigations of nefarious third parties determined to undermine our election system by (gasp!) registering people to vote.
With all due respect, as they say, here's a simple suggestion for the Virginia State Board of Elections: Please investigate yourself.
Here's what we saw in our hours at the polls:
--numerous people who insisted that they had registered to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles, but the registration had not made it from the DMV into the registrar's records.
--numerous people, literally hundreds, who insisted that they had changed their voting address at the DMV, but the address change had not made it from the DMV into the registrar's records. The most ridiculous: the married couples who had moved and changed their address at the same time at the DMV. In one case, the husband's address change was listed, but not the wife's. In another case, the wife's address change was listed, but not the husband's. As a result, the "missing" spouse had to go to the old precinct to vote, causing annoyance, frustration, inconvenience, and, on occasion, mumbled oaths.
--well-intentioned poll workers who attempted to turn away voters because they had a change of address, even though the voters could show their identity by proper id.
--a poll worker who demanded multiple forms of identification from voters, even though the voter had already produced a driver's license, a military id, or some other form of acceptable id. The most ridiculous? An African-American military man in fatigues who had spread out on the table a driver's license, a military id, and a voter registration card, and was told that he could not vote. With a little discussion and some reference to SBE documents, problem solved.
--well-meaning poll workers who had obviously been trained to root out "fraud" and to turn away voters by imposing conditions more stringent than those required by law, but who had apparently not been trained on their corresponding obligations to respect the rights of voters.
--well-intentioned poll workers who had apparently not been advised of voter's rights to fill out an affirmation of identity as a substitute for an id, to fill out an affirmation of eligibility when challenged, in writing, by the poll worker or by another voter, or, at the very least, to cast a provisional ballot. Until persuaded otherwise by SBE documents and discussion with a supervisor, poll workers initially attempted to simply turn these voters away.
--delays in line due to huge turnout, yes, but some unnecessary delays due to poll workers who were unfamiliar with the requirements and voter rights discussed above. The poll workers at the tables checking in voters had to be supplied with copies of SBE documents regarding proper id, because they did not have them.
--numerous people, some in wheelchairs or using walkers or canes and obviously very ill, who said that they had requested an absentee ballot from the Virginia Beach registrar and never received it, or who received an absentee ballot on the day before election day. The most ridiculous? A lady in line said her son was a student in California on a religious mission, and had requested an absentee ballot from the Virginia Beach registrar. The absentee ballot, requested on October 6th, was postmarked on October 31st, the Friday before election day, and was received on November 3rd, the day before election day. Too late to return it, and getting on a plane to come to Virginia and vote was a bit prohibitive, so he lost his right to vote.
--only two people who said that they were registered to vote through third parties and whose registration did not show up on the records. Yes, they had a receipt, and yes, they were allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
--which brings us to an odd quirk in the SBE press release: the SBE is investigating "complaints that some voters may not have been able to cast ballots because their voter registrations were never submitted by third parties." While we're at it, maybe the SBE should investigate why these voters were apparently turned away and not allowed to cast at least a provisional ballot, as required by law.
And let's not forget these oldies but goodies before the election:
--a local registrar who illegally attempted to suppress student voting by inaccurately threatening students with loss of their financial aid, health insurance, etc. if they tried to register to vote at their student address.
--mysteriously missing or substantially delayed absentee ballots for students who maintained their voting address at their home address.
--shenanigans regarding voting locations for students by some local registrars.
--an SBE that was more preoccupied with imposing an illegal and unnecessary dress code on the voters it serves than on making sure that delays and denials of the right to vote were kept to an absolute minimum.
--a Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial wannabe who staged a phony rush to rescue "military absentee ballots" by declaring that federal law is superior to state law, something that all students at real law schools learn in their very first semester.
--machines broken, down, or delayed in certain neighborhoods, such as Crestwood or Seatack, that um, shall we say, bring into question the objectivity of the process.
We must emphasize that these problems were resolved and that everybody in our precinct was allowed to vote. However, we hope that voters at the end of the long lines did not leave while the problems of others at the front of the line were being straightened out. Obviously, some of these problems could have been avoided in the first place with better training, simple documents, and better coordination among state and local agencies, particularly the DMV.
Complaints about delays? No problem. We'll take delays any day, as long as the system remains honest and everybody gets to vote.