Wait just a minute! How can there be more registered voters in a locality than voting age adults?

There are actually eight localities where the total number of registered voters is greater than the voting age population – the total number of Virginia citizens 18 and older – according to the census data just updated in June of 2016. Moreover, in fifteen other localities, the number of registered voters exceeds 95% of the voting age population of those jurisdictions. Something is clearly wrong.

Fortunately, the General Assembly agrees. My bill, SB 1105, would require registrars in those eight 100% plus localities to inquire and report their findings to the Department of Elections. It passed both the Senate and House.

Friends, I’ve just learned that Governor McAuliffe has vetoed this bill. It is critical to our electoral integrity. The Governor says he’s afraid that this common-sense bill will expose voters “to the risk of improper disenfranchisement.” Sadly, this is clearly a pretext for a veto. There is nothing in the bill that allows a single voter to be removed from the voting rolls. It only requires a report. Through this investigation and report, we may actually learn something. We might learn that the census figures are wrong; that the locality is growing extremely fast; or perhaps, even that the voting rolls are a mess and need to be cleaned up.

What does the Governor’s veto say? It says that the Governor doesn’t want to know why there seems to be too many people on the voting rolls in these localities. Or perhaps that he knows, but doesn’t want anyone to talk about it.

The integrity of our election system is the issue. Our system works only if voters have confidence that it is free, open, and fair. How can they have confidence if the voting rolls are so hopelessly out of date or clearly inaccurate? They can’t.

The integrity of our elections should be unquestioned. That’s why I sponsored three other bills this year – all of which passed – to strengthen our electoral integrity:

1) SB 1253 (passed Senate 21 – 19 and House 65 – 34) – providing every voting precinct in the state an electronic copy of your DMV identification to speed the check-in process for voting;

2) SB 1254 (passed Senate 39 – 0 and House 98 – 0) – requiring all ballot scanner machines to audited at least once every five years; and

3) SB 1363 (passed Senate 37 – 2 and House 97 – 0) – directing the creation of a task force to create an online portal or ‘one-stop shop’, where you can change your address at one site and that information is shared between state agencies, rather than filing out five forms on five different websites. When I move, I should be able to go to one site and change my address for EVERY state agency I’m registered with – think Tax, DMV, voter registration, and the list goes on. In addition to reducing the inconvenience for Virginians, it will help our registrars maintain accurate voter rolls when voters move.

Protecting the integrity of our system of elections and ensuring they are free, open and fair is a critical role of government. If you agree with these common-sense measures, please encourage the Governor to sign all three of these bills, or call them at 804-786-2211.

Best regards,

Mark Obenshain