Va. looks into missed absentee ballot deadlines

A death and a computer snafu sparked by a name change were responsible for delays in mailing out absentee ballots in Greene and Nelson counties, respectively, local registrars said.

The localities are two of 16 that failed to meet the Virginia State Board of Election’s deadline to mail out absentee ballots. The board now is looking into why those offices, out of the state’s 134 cities and counties, missed the Sept. 18 deadline.

Late absentee ballots also were reported in the cities of Colonial Heights, Manassas, Poquoson, Richmond, Suffolk and Williamsburg and the counties of Caroline, Essex, Northumberland, Montgomery, Richmond, Shenandoah, Smyth and Westmoreland.

The General Assembly passed absentee voter requirements this year that call for registrars to make paper, e-mail or in-person ballots available on the first day of absentee voting.

Voting in Virginia has been under scrutiny — the state was ordered this month to count about 2,100 military absentee ballots from last year’s presidential election.

In Greene, the funeral of the electoral board chairman’s mother caused a delay in getting the ballots mailed. Sandra Shifflett, the general registrar, said electoral boards can delegate the process to the registrar but that hadn’t been done. The chairman was unable to check over the absentee ballots because of the death and subsequent Sept. 18 funeral.

“Facts of life are going to happen,” Shifflett said. “We did the best we could.”

According to the election agency’s documents, Greene offered in-person voting Sept. 18 at the registrar’s office but didn’t send the ballots until Sept. 21.

A name change for Nelson County’s general registrar may be the reason she didn’t hear of 11 absentee ballot applications for military and overseas voters until late September, she said. Jacqueline Clark said she updated her name in the election agency’s system in March, but she recently learned she wasn’t on the daily e-mail list of approved absentee ballot applications.

The registrar said the state board has been sending information to her previous name and that of her predecessor. She said the daily e-mails could have gone to old e-mail addresses for those names, but the state should have received an error message to show that those e-mail addresses no longer exist.

Once Clark got the list, she said she found outstanding applications. In her letter to the state election agency, Clark said she sent the rest of the ballots Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Clark said she already has received two paper ballots back from voters in Denmark and London.

Some Virginians protested the late ballots in front of the state agency Wednesday. Political party officials in Nelson and Greene didn’t return calls Thursday for comment.

Vicki Williams, absentee-voting coordinator for the State Board of Elections, said that just because a few ballots were mailed from the 16 localities a day or so late, it doesn’t mean they won’t be received in time to be counted. They must be received by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Election Day, she said. She did not know how many ballots were at stake.

Ryan Enright, a state agency spokesman, said the board would discuss the issue at its next meeting.

He said the law doesn’t provide for a monetary penalty, but additional training or oversight may be warranted to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Clark said she would welcome additional state training, but she said she feels this situation happened because of the state agency. Both Clark and Shifflett said they expect the state board will watch their offices more closely in the future.

Media General News Service contributed to this story.