The 2008 presidential election has attracted a record number of new registered voters throughout the country, and the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County are part of that trend. Since 2004, more than 5,000 new voters registered in the city along with more than 5,000 in the county. But the influx of voters will strain the city’s voting resources.
The reason for that strain comes from legislative hamstringing. In an effort to ease fears of hackers manipulating electronic voting machines, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law in April 2007 that prohibits local governments from purchasing new Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting machines. If localities need new voting machines, they are expected to turn to optical scanning machines that read paper ballots.
 Sheri Iachetta, the city’s general registrar, is worried that Charlottesville will be short on voting machines come November because of a state law that keeps them from purchasing new electronic machines. |
According to the Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia, the DRE machines have shown to be vulnerable to manipulation and error. For supporters of the new law, paperless machines won’t allow voters to check that their vote was correctly cast.
The city’s electronic machines do not produce a paper record of individual votes. “People didn’t have the confidence in the machines that had no paper trails,” says Sheri Iachetta, the city’s general registrar. “They want us to scrap everything and get new ones.”
But not everyone agrees that more paper is better. “We have 94 localities that use DRE machines,” says Iachetta. “And we love [the machines].”
Initially, the Assembly called for a general changeover to the optical scanners by 2010, but cost concerns and opposition from registrars, including Iachetta, reversed the proposition. Localities are allowed to use the DRE machines for the life of the apparatus—after that, they can only purchase new optical scanners.
Iachetta says the law is unfair. “In 2004, I was able to rent eight more [DRE] machines because of the large increase in voters,” she says. “But this time, we have 5,000 more voters and we are down eight machines.” The Virginia State Board of Elections and the Voter Registrars Association of Virginia intend to appeal the decision after the 2008 elections in November, according to Iachetta. “It’s a bad law,” she says.
The county, however, has enough machines for November, according to General Registrar Jack Washburne. “Before the deadline of the moratorium of April 2007, the county’s Electoral Board decided to purchase six new DRE machines,” says Washburne. “They were concerned about the increase in voter registration.” With the six new machines, purchased for about $39,000, the county has a total of 103 electronic machines in its precincts. “If the projected enormous turnout is true, we do expect to have people wait to find parking,” says Washburne. “There will inevitably be lines, but as far as voting machines, we are in good shape.”
What precincts have seen the biggest increase in registration? In the city, Carver and Jefferson Park precincts have seen a steady increase of new voters, but Recreation precinct, which includes Downtown, has grown the most since 2004.
In the county, Cale precinct increased by 704 voters since 2004. Free Bridge precinct, which includes Pantops, jumped by 607, while the Brownsville precinct, which includes Old Trail, rose by 536 voters.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.