Virginia: Voting problems can’t happen again, residents say | HamptonRoads.com

A dozen speakers described a litany of problems encountered by voters at Hampton Roads polling places in last month’s presidential election at a meeting Monday night at City Hall. Some of the difficulties – notably, having to wait in line up to five hours in chilly weather to cast a ballot – amounted to virtual disenfranchisement, several speakers said, and should not be allowed to recur. U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd District, who called the meeting, agreed and said he is supporting legislation designed to streamline the process.

Virginia: Voter fraud gets another spin | Roanoke.com

Del. Mark Cole is worried about voter fraud in Virginia. Not that any evidence of widespread fraud has come to light in the commonwealth. But, well, it could be happening, Cole figures. So he’s going to double back on his effort this year to tighten up. Cole, a Republican from Spotsylvania County, has prefiled a bill for the 2013 General Assembly session, HB 1337, that would remove several forms of identification voters can present at the polls when they go to cast their ballots. He wants to strike current utility bills, bank statements, government checks or pay stubs that show a person’s address — all added this year to help win Justice Department approval when the Republican-dominated assembly passed, and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell signed, legislation making it significantly harder for Virginians to vote without proper ID.

Virginia: Legislators debate early voting | Martinsville Bulletin

Three of this area’s state legislators are divided on whether they would support no-excuse, in-person early voting in Virginia to alleviate some of the long waits to vote that occurred on Election Day Nov. 6. Del. Charles Poindexter said Virginia’s current election system has worked well — “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said — and he sees some drawbacks to allowing voters to cast ballots early in person without an excuse. Del. Don Merricks said he would not be opposed to no-excuse, in-person early voting in concept, but a lot of logistical issues would need to be worked out. Del. Danny Marshall said he would favor such early voting if it could be done at registrar’s offices. State Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Glade Hill, could not be reached.

Virginia: Gov. McDonnell willing to consider early voting | WTOP.com

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell says that waiting two hours to vote is unacceptable and he’s willing to consider expanding early voting opportunities to prevent that from happening in the future. More than 70 percent of registered Virginia voters cast ballots Nov. 6 and communities throughout the state reported long lines. In Prince William County, where voters complained of a lack of machines, voters stayed in line until almost 11 p.m. waiting to vote.

Virginia: Ken Cuccinelli Implies Voter Fraud in 2012 Election | NYTimes.com

Apparently, there are limits to what acolytes of voter fraud will say. Take Virginia’s attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, who was a major backer of the law passed by his state requiring voters to present ID before they cast a ballot. Last week, life on the Republican fringe got too uncomfortable even for Mr. Cuccinelli, when he found himself agreeing with a radio talk show host, Cheri Jacobus, who implied that President Obama stole the 2012 election. Her “evidence” for this assertion was that Mr. Obama lost all of the states where voter ID is required. “He can’t win a state where photo ID is required. So clearly there’s something going on out there,” she said on WMAL. Ms. Jacobus and her co-host, Brian Wilson, proceeded to complain that Mr. Cuccinelli had not opened an investigation into what they said was widespread voter fraud in Virginia — claims that ThinkProgress reported were based on emails from their listeners. Mr. Cuccinelli replied, “Your tone suggests you’re a little upset with me. You’re preaching to the choir. I’m with you completely.”

Virginia: Prince William County board creates independent panel to look into long lines on Election Day | The Washington Post

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to appoint an independent, bipartisan panel to look at why many voters waited hours on Election Day to cast their ballot. The panel would also make recommendations about how the county can avoid such problems in the future. The Nov. 6 lines were the worst at the River Oaks precinct at Potomac Middle School, in a Democratic-leaning, minority district, where voters waited in some cases more than four hours to vote. The last vote there was cast at 10:45 p.m., and election officials acknowledged that the biggest problem was lack of voting machines.

Virginia: Lawmaker wants to stiffen new voter-ID law | HamptonRoads.com

Virginia’s voter identification policy will become tougher than it currently is if Del. Mark Cole has his druthers. Cole wants to remove several forms of ID now accepted for voting based on his belief that the recently revised law doesn’t do enough to thwart potential voter fraud. The Republican legislator would like the General Assembly to strike provisions that allow voters to present a current utility bill, bank statement, government check or pay stub with an address as valid ID at the polls. “Those never should have been added to the list of acceptable IDs,” said Cole, of Spotsylvania County.

Virginia: Fairfax County approves commission to examine Election Day problems | The Washington Post

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to create a special commission to examine problems on Election Day, namely long lines that forced some voters to wait hours to cast their ballots. “The fact that so many people came out to exercise their right to vote is a good thing,” said Chairman Sharon Bulova (D), who proposed the commission. “That so many people had to wait in long lines for several hours was not. We’ll never know how many people gave up.” The commission’s mandate will be to study a range of issues suspected of contributing to the lines — from equipment and staffing shortages to reports of poorly trained poll workers — and to return with findings and recommendations.

Virginia: Paper Ballots In Prince William County? | NBC4

According to PotomacLocal.com, Prince William County has decided to use paper ballots in elections, following long lines at the polls on Election Day. The local-news website tweeted the news Tuesday night: “Breaking News: Prince William County Board of Elections to institute use of paper ballots following long lines at polls Nov. 6.” On Election Day, some voters in the county waited for up to four hours to vote. The long lines attracted some press reports – including from News4’s Voter Patrol – and even national attention. But it also prompted concern for the Board of Elections.

Virginia: Democrats complain GOP contributed to long waits to vote in Fairfax | The Washington Post

When long lines forced some Fairfax voters to wait until 10:30 p.m. to cast their ballots on Election Day, county elections chief Cameron Quinn said the delays arose partly because she had had huge problems recruiting poll workers. That explanation enraged some Fairfax Democrats. They complained that they’d proposed appointments of hundreds of elections officials whom Quinn and others in the Republican-controlled Fairfax elections apparatus had failed to approve in time. It might be a coincidence. Hans von Spakovsky, the GOP-appointed vice chairman of the Fairfax Electoral Board, said the board approved “every single individual” who filled out the necessary paperwork.

Virginia: Virginia Beach voter registrar cites technical difficulties | HamptonRoads.com

Voter registrar Donna Patterson blamed technical difficulties and an unprecedented number of curbside voters for long lines at polling places and the delay in reporting election results on Nov. 6. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Patterson said she will evaluate each precinct to see what can be improved. “Having people wait three hours isn’t anything I’d like to see with an election,” she said.

Virginia: Monies Would’ve Not Gone for New Voter Machines | Potomac Local

Officials failed to forecast the record turnout at polls on Tuesday. Woodbridge’s River Oaks voting precinct has more than 4,000 active registered voters assigned to it and saw a 64 percent voter turnout rate Tuesday. Voters here waited in long lines, and in line before the polls closed at 7 p.m. waited for up to four hours to cast their votes. President Barack Obama won handily over Mitt Romney with 84 percent of the vote at this precinct. Democrats also turned out in droves to other precincts in eastern Prince William County like Lynn in Woodbridge, and Godwin and Dale in Dale City.

Virginia: Long lines reignite push for early voting in Virginia | Washington Examiner

A week after Virginians waited in line for hours to vote for president, there’s a new push in the state to allow residents to vote early. Sen. Janet Howell, D-Reston, has tried repeatedly over the years to loosen the state’s early voting restrictions without success. But she said voter frustration with long lines may have given her new momentum. “A lot of voters are very angry because they had to wait in such long lines,” Howell said. “I’m hopeful that anger will help get it passed. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It should be about making it easy for people to vote.”

Virginia: State senator tries again for universal early voting | HamptonRoads.com

As she has done in each of the past six years, state Sen. Janet Howell is offering a bill in the 2013 General Assembly session to create near-universal early voting in Virginia. And after Tuesday’s election, she’ll come armed with anecdotes of interminably long lines at polling places in her home base of Fairfax County, similar to those seen in South Hampton Roads, to make the case for her legislation. Yet if the past is any indication, those real-world examples may not be enough to overcome resistance.

Virginia: Long voting lines blamed on high turnout, too-few poll workers and voting machines | The Washington Post

In the District, there were technical glitches with equipment at polling places. In Montgomery County, budget constraints led to about 1,000 fewer election judges than during the previous presidential election. But there’s no question about it: Some precincts in Northern Virginia held the dubious distinction of having the most brutally long lines for voters in the Washington region on Tuesday. In Prince William and Fairfax counties, hundreds waited for more than three hours — and long after polls were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. The problems were blamed on high voter turnout, unusually long ballots, a shortage of poll workers and a limited number of touch-screen machines.

Virginia: Voters find power outages, long lines at Virginia polling places | NBC12.com

Election Day is underway, but not without some issues in parts of Central Virginia. A pair of brief power outages in at least three polling places around 6:10 a.m. caused issues for some voters in Eastern Henrico. The lights flickered at the polls at Central Gardens Elementary School, Abundant Life Church, and Ratcliffe Elementary School.  However, Central Gardens power did not return, according to Dominion Power.

Virginia: Voter fraud case expands to focus on GOP firm | The Washington Post

The investigation into the arrest of a man on charges of dumping voter registration forms last month in Harrisonburg, Va., has widened, with state officials probing whether a company tied to top Republican leaders had engaged in voter registration fraud in the key battleground state, according to two persons close to the case. A former employee of Strategic Allied Consulting, a contractor for the Republican Party of Virginia, had been scheduled to appear last Tuesday before a grand jury after he was charged with tossing completed registration forms into a recycling bin. But state prosecutors canceled Colin Small’s grand jury testimony to gather more information, with their focus expanding to the firm that had employed Small, which is led by longtime GOP operative Nathan Sproul.

Virginia: Fairfax judge declines to issue injunction on poll observers | The Washington Post

In the end, even the Fairfax County judge deciding a last-minute lawsuit over the rights of poll watchers on Election Day wasn’t sure what the parties were fighting over. So Judge Dennis J. Smith declined late Friday night to issue an injunction that local Democrats had sought to address what they claimed was an illegal attempt by Republicans to limit party observers — and possibly votes — in Virginia’s biggest Democratic stronghold.

Virginia: Election Results Could Come Late Due to Virgina Voter ID Law | Newsplex

The new voter ID law in Virginia, which took effect earlier this summer, just doesn’t change how people vote — it also changes when the official results of the election will be released. “I don’t really know, since this is the first time really that the ID law has been into affect, what it’s going to do,” Charlottesville registrar Sheri Iachetta said. When Virginia’s voter ID law went into effect, it wiped out the affirmation of identity, the alternative for voters who didn’t have an ID with them. The signature would allow the person to vote.

Virginia: Fairfax Democrats sue over polling-place observers | The Washington Post

The Fairfax County Democratic Committee is suing state and local elections officials over what the committee says is an illegal attempt by Republicans to change rules about elections observers with the aim of reducing votes in Virginia’s biggest Democratic stronghold. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Fairfax County Circuit Court, centers on what Democrats say are new restrictions on party observers inside polling places.

Virginia: Troubling ties in voter fraud case | HamptonRoads.com

The supervisor of a Republican-affiliated voter registration drive has been accused of throwing away completed registration forms. Now authorities are trying to figure out whether the forms were discarded intentionally, and whether there is cause for concern elsewhere in Virginia. Authorities arrested the supervisor this month, after a Rockingham County businessman reported seeing someone dumping a bag into his store’s recycling bin. The businessman discovered the completed voter registration forms when he went to move the bag.

Virginia: Fairfax Democrats warn of voting machine problems | The Washington Post

Fairfax Democrats issued a warning Thursday about reports that touch-screen voting machines were malfunctioning during early voting, switching ballot selections to the opposing candidate. Jessica Tripp and Penelope Nunez move a table at Arlington Art Center, a polling center, in preparation for Super Tuesday. (Melina Mara – The Washington Post) Fairfax County elections officials said they were aware of two instances in which voters claimed the machines had changed their votes. But officials expressed confidence that both were cases of user error.

Virginia: Despite new law, military absentee ballot requests fall | HamptonRoads

In the hotly contested swing state of Virginia, where a small number of votes could tip the presidential election, requests for absentee ballots from military members are down sharply from 2008. The trend is raising concerns that despite a new law aimed at getting out the military vote, many of those serving will not be involved in choosing the next commander in chief. The Military Voter Protection Project released figures in August indicating steep declines in absentee ballot requests in five swing states, with Virginia lagging the farthest behind. Numbers in Virginia have rebounded somewhat since then – perhaps a result of a big final push by state, Pentagon and military officials to get service members registered before the Oct. 15 deadline. Still, State Board of Elections figures show a stark drop from 2008, with just 9,852 military voter absentee ballots requested this year, compared with 20,738 in 2008.

Virginia: State AG wants power to probe election issues | The Washington Post

Virginia’s attorney general is calling on the legislature to empower his office to launch investigations into allegations of vote-tampering like the incident that occurred last week in Harrisonburg. Ken Cuccinelli II on Monday sent a letter to Sen. Donald McEachin in response to his call for a probe at the state level into the Oct. 15 incident. In his response, Cuccinelli said he is not opening an investigation because he hasn’t yet been asked to do so.“My office does not have the authority to investigate election matters unless explicitly requested to do so by State Board of Elections, a local commonwealth’s attorney, or a local electoral board member,” the letter reads. “No such request has been made to date. … My hands are tied in this matter.”

Virginia: Man registering voters for GOP accused of tossing forms in trash | latimes.com

A man who was being paid to register voters by the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested Thursday after he was seen dumping eight registration forms into a dumpster. Colin Small, 31, was working as a supervisor as part of a registration operation in eight swing states financed by the Republican National Committee. Small, of Phoenixville, Pa., was first hired by Strategic Allied Consulting, a firm that was fired by the party after suspect voter forms surfaced in Florida and other states. The owner of a store in Harrisonburg, Va., told a local television station that he became suspicious when he saw a car with Pennsylvania plates dump an envelope in back of his store. He recovered the envelope and alerted authorities. “He made a mistake and he’s being charged with it, which we fully support,” said Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. The committee paid more than $3 million to state committees to finance the get-out-the-vote operation.

Virginia: Man Tied To Virginia GOP Arrested In Voter Registration Form Destruction | TPM

A Pennsylvania man employed by a company working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by investigators from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s office on Thursday and charged with destroying voter registration forms. Colin Small, a 31-year-old resident of Phoenixville, Pa., worked for Pinpoint, a company hired to register voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia. Prosecutors charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice. Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson’s office said there was no indication that the activity was widespread in their jurisdiction and said the conduct “appears to be limited in nature.” His office said there is a possibility that additional charges may be filed.

Virginia: Investigation Launched Over Trashed Virginia Voter Registration Forms | NBC29

Is it a case of election fraud, voter suppression, or something far less sinister?  That’s what Rockingham County investigators are trying to find out, after someone trashed a folder of voter registration forms. Just hours before the Monday deadline for voter registration, a Harrisonburg store manager made a discovery that will keep eight citizens from being silenced.  Their completed registration forms were discarded like trash.  Investigators don’t yet know if it’s criminal activity or just bad business. A typical Monday afternoon at Tuesday Morning, a store in Harrisonburg, took a strange turn, when the manager Rob Johnson spotted someone putting a bag of trash in his recycling bin.  Johnson went to retrieve the misplaced refuse. “That’s when I realized, this bag is really light and looked inside,” Johnson said.  “There was the manila folder with the eight voter registration applications, and I was like, we’ve got something here.”

Virginia: Fairfax Democrats worry GOP might taint vote process | The Washington Post

A political and legal tussle is gaining force in Northern Virginia over guaranteeing a fair vote on Election Day. Fairfax County Democrats are complaining that Republican-appointed county elections officials are breaking or twisting some rules to help the GOP in the biggest jurisdiction in a key swing state. The arguments might end up in court in the next two weeks. The disputes are mainly over Republicans’ plans to restrict activities by party lawyers and other elections observers inside polling places and to limit access to provisional ballots while a decision is made on whether to count them. The GOP says that federal and state law support its policies. Democrats say that the Republicans are violating or misinterpreting the law, with the possible result that legitimate votes will go uncounted.

Virginia: Voters to show gun permits as voter ID, no photo required | Examiner

Based on the chatter on gun blogs and Internet forums, it looks like a groundswell is underway in Virginia to borrow a page from Napoléon’s playbook and vote ‘to the sound of the guns.’ Thanks to a new law passed by the Virginia General Assembly and signed by Governor Bob McDonnell (R), all that it will take to vote in Virginia this year is a concealed handgun permit. This means no photo is required to vote, a far different story that the recent Pennsylvania photo-voter statute struck down by a Pennsylvania judge. A key objection to the Pennsylvania photo-voter scheme was the difficulty in obtaining photo ID by people without driver’s licenses.