Prince William Voter Registrar, Electoral Board at odds over funding Absentee voting

Prince William County Voting Registrar Michele White said she can’t afford to pay poll workers across five Saturdays leading up to Election Day, November 5, to allow people to cast an absentee ballot (AB).

But, the county’s Democrat-controlled Electoral Board says they’ll keep them as planned [Prince William Times].

• Board Chairman Keith Scarborough told The Times this was not the election year to cut back on absentee voting days.
• “We might have to seriously consider cutting back on absentee voting for the March primary and the June primary,” Scarborough said of next year’s elections. “But this is the election that has the most impact on the most people.”

This year’s November 5 election is an “off-off” year election with local and state races up for grabs, where voter turnout most likely won’t top 30%.

• Next November’s Presidential Election could bring double the voter turnout.
• 71% of registered voters in Prince William County voted in the November 2016 General Presidential Election.
• 15% voted in a March 2016 Democratic Primary.
• 17% voted in a June 2016 Republican Primary.

During an emergency meeting held Tuesday in Manassas, White suggested cutting all but two AB voting days, October 21, and November 2.

• The move was expected to save about $16,000.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors awarded White’s office a 26% budget increase this year.

• It came after voters experienced poll worker shortages in the November 2018 Election.
• Prince William County had the second-highest number of voter complaints of any Virginia jurisdiction that year.
• An email produced by White’s office states that, despite the budget increase, “Michele is fearful that under the recent directives and of discussions with the Electoral Board, the office will continue to operate beyond our budget and diminish her credibility…”

Voters will be able to cast an AB on these dates at the General Registrar’s office on Lee Avenue, across the county courthouse in Manassas, at a DMV on Caton Hill Road in Woodbridge, and at the Gainesville-Haymarket Regional Library in Haymarket on Oct. 21 and November 2.

• People can also cast their votes at these same locations Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 5 p.m.

The elections office had been allowing ABs since an April 2017 Special Election for Clerk of the Circuit Court. An email from the Registrar’s office said officials “may have misstepped” when it offered these many AB days, incorrectly thinking it could absorb the additional cost.

AB voting in the state begins Friday, with 45 days left to go before the election.