Vote absentee…if you have a good excuse

By The Associated Press
Published: October 27, 2008

(AP) Ever considered voting absentee? State and local election officials in Virginia wish you would.

With an unprecedented tsunami of energized voters expected to flood the polls in an emotional, historic election, absentee voting could help you avoid the hassle and shorten long lines on election day.

Virginia doesn’t have early voting, as many states now do. There are 17 criteria under which Virginia voters qualify to cast absentee ballots.

Pregnant? You’re in.

Planning a vacation in early November or worried that Nov. 4 could be a bear of a long day at the office? You qualify.

“In Virginia, we have excuse-based absentee voting, but we are encouraging people, if you do have a reason, then vote absentee,’’ said Rokey W. Suleman II, the voter registrar in the state’s largest locality, Fairfax County.

Suleman is expecting up to 80 percent of Fairfax County’s nearly 681,000 registered voters – more than half a million – to cast ballots. In 2004, total absentee voting in Fairfax County was 53,488.

In 2004, Fairfax County employed 2,400 people to work at polling precincts on election day. This year, Suleman has hired 3,100.
Across the state, the story is the same.

Nancy Rodrigues, the state’s top election official as executive secretary of the State Board of Elections, tells all who will listen that she’s already voted absentee and implores others to see if they qualify to do the same.

Qualifying isn’t automatic, however, and election officials don’t suggest lying to vote absentee. The absentee ballot application warns voters they are under oath to truthfully fill out the application, and deliberate falsification is a crime.

“You are attesting to that under penalty of a felony. That’s supposed to be the impetus to keep people from lying on the form. But are there election police out there checking each one of these? No, there are not,’’ Suleman said.

It boils down to good faith and common sense, election officials said. For example, if a major report is due on Nov. 4 and the commute on Tuesdays is difficult, it’s reasonable to expect that 11 hours of your day will be occupied, so vote absentee with a clear conscience. Or if you vote absentee to accommodate a client meeting in another town on election day, but the appointment is canceled, don’t fret about a stretch in jail.

In Roanoke, registrar Beryl Brooks said voters shouldn’t expect an easy 15- or 20-minute wait in a short line on election day. She has already blown her office’s budget hiring 239 election officers to work the polls next month compared to 167 four years ago.
“We’ve done everything we can with what we have,’’ Brooks said.

Absentee ballots are opened and counted after the polls close with the ballots cast that day. They are just as secret as the votes you cast at your polling place.

Virginians can vote absentee either in person at the offices of local voter registrars. Some cities and counties have additional absentee voting satellite precincts. Most people vote absentee by mail.

For mail voting, the first step is to apply for an absentee ballot, something that can be done online by downloading an application and instructions from the State Board of Election Web site at http://www.sbe.virginia.gov. Applications are also available from local registrars or through either major political party.

The applications can be returned by mail or by fax, but they have to be in the hands of local election officials by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The completed ballots must be in the possession of local election officials before polls close at 7 p.m. on Nov. 4 to be counted.

Registrars statewide will be open the final weekend before the election to accommodate in-person absentee voting. Saturday, Nov. 1, is the deadline for an in-person absentee vote.

Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Vote absentee…if you have a good excuse

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