With the general election less than a week away, nearly 150 students at James Madison University are being told that they are not eligible to vote.
Fred Hilton, director of University Communications at JMU, said because of an administrative error, student registrations from a recent voter drive were postmarked after the Oct. 7 deadline.
Although students ran the voter drive, Donna Harper, executive assistant to the JMU president, was responsible for sending in the applications. They were given to her around noon Oct. 7, Hilton said.
The applications were given to Harper in order to take advantage of a "special postage rate," JMU Student Senate Chairman Matthew Gray said.
Harper took the applications to the university post office before the 5 p.m. closing time, Hilton added.
"Four o'clock is the last delivery to the main post office in downtown Harrisonburg where postmarks are done," he said. "Because of that, the applications weren't delivered until the following day."
Jean Jensen, deputy secretary for the State Board of Elections, called the situation "unfortunate" but stressed the importance of getting applications in on time.
"State law doesn't allow us to register voters for 28 days before an election," Jensen said. "If we start making exceptions there is no way to stop."
Harper has taken "full responsibility" for what happened, according to Hilton, and she regrets not having "asked important questions" about the deadline beforehand.
"It was an honest mistake," Hilton said. "One would assume that if you take them there they would be postmarked that day."
Many students didn't find out about the error until recently, because the Board of Elections is not equipped to contact everyone involved directly, Jensen said.
"The bulk of registrations were for the City of Harrisonburg, and the city registrar notified them almost immediately," Hilton said. In addition, the delayed mailing "didn't affect a handful of absentee ballot requests" which have an Oct. 31 deadline.
Although most of the affected students were "expected to vote for the general obligation bonds," Hilton said he "doesn't think that 150 votes will make a difference in the election either way."
Hilton added, though, the importance "for students to get involved with the political process."
Despite the delay, students who filled out applications still will be registered to vote for future elections if they are eligible.
"The applications are not out of the system," Jensen said. "After the election they will still be processed."
Bennett Smith, student campaign manager for Foundation 2002, estimated that the application delays affected half of the approximately 300 students registered by the JMU voter drive.
"Registrations were submitted a few weeks before the deadline and again at the end," Smith said. "The first batch was sent in on time."
Foundation 2002, which was started in April of this year, "worked with every four-year college, community college and university in Virginia to advocate passage of the general obligation bonds," Smith said.
The organization supported voter registration drives Sept. 17 through Oct. 7 and will cease to exist Nov. 15.
In an effort to compensate for the loss of potential voters, student organizers at JMU are planning a "big get out the vote campaign," Hilton said.
"In the future," he added, "we'll just have to mail it earlier."
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