Before the votes can be tallied, the voters must be tallied. Local registrars have been slowly shoveling themselves out from the flurry of paperwork they received around the October 6 voter registration deadline. The final count? The City of Charlottesville has 28,646 registered voters and Albemarle County boasts a total of 67,259.
The numbers are impressive considering the total population of both areas. Charlottesville has 80 percent of its eligible population registered to vote. Albemarle County has an even bigger part, with an estimated 95 percent of their eligible population registered.
“That’s based on the last census estimates from 2005,” said county registrar Jake Washburne, “but [our population] has to be higher. It’d be nice if it were exactly accurate, but it is our closest estimate.”
According to the State Board of Elections, Charlottesville has been one of the areas of greatest growth in newly registered voters as well. As of October 4, Charlottesville had registered 2,889 new voters in 2008 alone, an increase of 10.7 percent, which is the fifth highest growth of the state’s 134 localities. Albemarle has seen a 7.3 percent increase in registered voters this year.
Both county and city registration offices have been working around the clock and putting in some weekend hours. Since the deadline passed, Washburne says, “it’s been like climbing out from under a snow bank.”
County registrar Jake Washburne has been climbing out from under a snowbank of registration forms.