Millions of Virginians will vote in this fall’s election. But before you can cast a ballot, you have to register.
Voter registration is the process by which citizens register with their state to be eligible to vote. In Virginia there are numerous ways to do so.
Stephanie Iles, Norfolk City’s Registrar, breaks down those options:
"They can register to vote in person at the registrar's office, they can register to vote. All of our public libraries have applications, they can fill one out and send it in. Disability service agencies such as Social Security and Disability Service Offices, DMV; they can register there. We have online voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles that links to the statewide system, or the voter can go online to the Department of Elections website and register to vote online.”
And who’s eligible? You must be 18 by the date of the next election. You must be a US citizen. You need to have residence in the locality where you intend to vote - though there are rules for the homeless allowing them to list an actual physical dwelling place.
And who’s ineligible? Virginia won’t let felons vote unless their rights have been restored by the governor. Those adjudicated mentally incompetent without having legal capacity restored are also forbidden to vote.
In order to register online you need to have a state ID -data from that ID, including your signature- is used to confirm your identity.
For those who need to update their registration or register for the first time, Iles suggests the online method.
“You're not missing anything, when you do it online, because you have to provide, you have to answer those questions to get through the application," Iles told Radio IQ. We can read your handwriting because it's printed out and the computer you're not having to because some people don't, don't wait so much they type. So, it's a completed application. And we're getting a completed application, and we process it.”
No matter how you register, your application goes to your local registrar’s office who then has to input your application.
The registrar then checks for completeness; that includes the voter’s name, age, address, phone and social security number and signature.
That data is run through the Department of Motor Vehicles database to see if the information matches someone who’s already registered. Any false statements made -such as citizenship or felony status- on a registration document get flagged by the registrar and sent to the local Commonwealth’s Attorney where you can be subject to criminal prosecution.
The conservative Heritage Foundation tracks election fraud convictions by state; according to their records there have been about six criminal convictions for false registration in the last 17 years.
According to Virginia’s Department of Elections there were about 6.1 million registered voters in the state as of the 2023 general election.
Clean up of voter rolls –removing those who've died, moved or shouldn’t have signed up in the first place- happens regularly, with data from the state Bureau of Vital Statistics, data sharing agreements with other states, National Change of Address reports and surrender reports from the DMV feeding info for clearing rolls.
Iles said about 85 percent of new voter registrations she sees come in through the DMV, but advocacy groups also hold events to register voters. Among those is Ted Braggs. He’s a retired Chesterfield resident and the Voter Registration Chairman for one of the Richmond chapters of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He’s been active in the election space on and off for about 50 years.
“I get so frustrated as I go out and talk to people and they talk about voting doesn’t matter, it’s not gonna make a change. And I disagree with that," Braggs told Radio IQ. "So, this is my way of giving back.”
His current work has him hosting voter registration events out in the community, most recently at Gilpin Court in Richmond’s northside.
He’s gone through the state-mandated training and certification process, making sure he knows how to collect, turn in and handle the sensitive data of would-be voters, every year for the last few years.
But even as he carries on the long history of going into the community to register voters, he said his fraternity has started pushing folks to register online.
“I take a notebook tablet out in the field with me that allows me to access that website and if, once someone wants to do it online, rather than fill out a form,” he said.
Voters can register on election day and vote, however they’ll cast a provisional ballot which must be validated by the local electoral board before it is counted.
Early voting starts September 20th.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
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