Tuesday, November 07, 2000

Because local registrars assist voter applicants at the DMV office in Roanoke, few problems have been reported here.

By JOANNE POINDEXTER The Roanoke Times

If you registered to vote at a Division of Motor Vehicles office, it's a good idea to take that paperwork with you to the polls today.

Chances are slim that Roanoke Valley voters will have any problems, but elsewhere around the state some people who used the "motor voter" registration are learning their names are not on the roll.

Election officials will be able to call the local registrar and the State Board of Elections to verify a registration.

If voters have their paperwork - such as a voter ID card or the confirmation slip issued at DMV - they will be allowed to cast a paper ballot, said Diane St. John, Roanoke County registrar.

Those ballots will be counted later if the registration is confirmed, said registrars in Roanoke and Roanoke County.

In some cases the verification may come immediately and the person can vote in the regular booth, St. John said.

Some people who have tried to cast absentee ballots this fall have discovered their names were missing from the rolls.

Many of those disappointed citizens signed up through DMV offices prior to January, when the DMV put in safeguards because registrations had been getting lost, said Pam Goheen, DMV spokeswoman.

Those procedures now require DMV clerks to ask customers twice about whether they want to register to vote.

"The system is working real well" because there were no complaints during the June presidential primary, Goheen said.

DMV clerks also are supposed to review applications to make sure they are signed. Customers get a confirmation slip and are reminded to contact their local registrar's office or the Board of Elections if they haven't received their voter registration card within 30 days, Goheen said.

DMV forwards all signed applications - whether they are complete or not - to the Board of Elections, Goheen said.

The process is simpler in the Roanoke Valley, where a registrar from Roanoke or Roanoke County works in the DMV office at Crossroads Mall daily to register voters.

People registering there are asked to contact their local registrars if their voter ID cards have not come in 10 days, St. John said. Registrars working at the DMV accept registration requests for people from all localities.

"We've had very few problems from the people who go there," Botetourt County Registrar Leslie Kinion said of the Crossroads office.

Most of the problems have occurred at "the other DMVs who don't have a registrar," Kinion said.

Since March 1996, when Virginia's "motor voter" legislation went into effect, about half of the 4 million people who have registered to vote did so when they were at a DMV office to buy license plates, get driver's licenses or conduct other business, Goheen said.

http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story102267.html

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), November 07, 2000