Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Registered voters with disabilities or who otherwise have trouble casting ballots should not stay away from the polls today, local registrars say.
In today’s election, Virginia voters will elect a president and vice president, as well as a United States senator and congressman. Stuart voters also will elect a mayor and five town council members.
Assistance in voting is available to people who are disabled, illiterate or 65 years of age and older, according to the registrars.
Elections officials can help them cast ballots, or they can choose someone such as a family member or friend to help them, the registrars said.
However, voters should first be given the opportunity to vote on their own, then be offered help if they realize they need it, said Henry County Registrar Elizabeth Stone.
Few people need help with the touch-screen voting system that the county primarily uses, Stone said.
“All you do is touch the name of the people you want to vote for,” she said. Once people learn how to use the technology, they are “so proud when they do it all by themselves.”
Both the voter and his or her assistant must fill out and sign a “request for assistance” form. If voters are not able to sign the form, they can place an X on the line for their signature, Martinsville Registrar Ercell Cowan said.
Blind voters and their assistants do not have to sign a form, the Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE) Web site shows.
A parent can bring a child aged 15 or younger into the voting booth. But the child cannot help a parent vote — an adult must do that, the registrars said.
Anyone disabled or 65 and older does not have to enter a polling place to vote. An elections worker can bring a paper ballot or touch-screen voting device to the voter’s car, if a person accompanying the voter enters the polling place and makes the request, the registrars said.
Stone said, though, that many disabled people in the county already have voted by casting absentee ballots.
According to the SBE Web site, voters have the right to seek help from elections officials if they are unsure about anything related to the voting process. That includes a demonstration of voting equipment before they actually vote.
While voting, if a person makes a mistake or changes his mind about voting for a candidate whose name he has marked, he has the right to ask for a new ballot or otherwise start the voting process over. But once a ballot is cast, a voter cannot be given another ballot, the Web site states.
Voters must show identification at the polls. Acceptable identification can include either a valid Virginia voter registration card, Virginia driver’s license, Social Security card or an ID card issued by the military, an employer (must have a photo) or the federal, state or local government.
If they have no document showing identity, registered voters can still vote if they sign an “affirmation of identity” statement.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. today. Anyone in line at 7 p.m. when a polling place is declared closed still will be able to cast a ballot.
A full list of voters’ rights and responsibilities is available on the state elections board’s Web site at www.sbe.virginia.gov.
Anyone who has a problem at the polling place in having her eligibility to vote determined or casting a vote has the right to ask precinct officials to call the local registrar.
Anyone who thinks his voting rights has been violated or he has seen an elections law broken can contact the State Board of Elections by phone at 1-800-552-9745, or he can use the Instant Polling Place Feedback report on the SBE Web site to contact state elections officials and their county or city registrar’s office at the same time.
Virginia voters have the right to be treated with courtesy and respect by elections officials, but those officials have the right to be treated the same way by voters, according to the SBE Web site.
Today’s election will be historic for one of two reasons. If Democrat Barack Obama is elected president, the nation will have its first black president. If Republican John McCain becomes president, his vice president, Sarah Palin, will be the nation’s first female vice president.
Therefore, registrars are expecting a heavy turnout at the polls. But they are unsure exactly how long voting lines will be.
Long lines could irritate some voters, they recognize.
Cowan said Martinsville elections officials occasionally have seen voters get unruly, but “nothing drastic” — such as having police arrest them — has had to be done to control them.
Patrick County Registrar Dianna Vipperman said few problems with voters have occurred there.
“People generally are very, very nice and pleasant,” Vipperman said.
Most people vote either on their way into work in the morning or on their way home from work late in the afternoon, Cowan said. People can vote in between those times to try and avoid long lines, she advised.
But “I don’t know how long the lines are going to be,” she emphasized.
Stone said she hopes businesses will let their employees take time off from work to go vote.
Living in a democracy, she said, “every citizen has earned” the right to vote, and a presidential election happens only every four years. |
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