[EL] Absentee excuse in VA verification

[Michael McDonald]

Two people -- completely independent of one another and unprompted by me
after I told them I am tracking early voting -- have told me that when they
submitted a request for a mail ballot, someone identifying themselves as an
election official called them and asked if they qualified for the excuse
that they provided. The voters felt intimidated by the phone call. This
makes me wonder if this is usual practice in Virginia and if the
jurisdictions who are performing these phone calls did so in the most recent
election, thus triggering Section 5 preclearance review. With "potentially"
lower levels of absentee voting in Northern Virginia compared to 2008, with
higher levels elsewhere, I also wonder if these phone calls are being
conducted throughout the state or only in Northern Virginia. Finally, I
wonder if these are indeed calls coming from election officials or an
organization that has access to the state's absentee ballot request list. 

Just putting this out there for the watchdog lawyers and the State Board to
look into. One person would be an anecdote, but two unrelated people strikes
me as data.

With regards my use of the word "potentially" -- this assessment is based on
a flawed report produced by the State Board of Elections. I have spoken with
the Information Services Manager about the report, who agreed there are
errors in the query into the statewide reporting database and has promised
to issue a new report. However, the office is preparing for potential
effects of Sandy, so a new report may be -- and is -- delayed. This is the
reason why I am holding off on updating my Virginia early vote statistics.

============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor
George Mason University
4400 University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

703-993-4191 (office)
e-mail:  mmcdon at gmu.edu               
web:     http://elections.gmu.edu
twitter: @ElectProject