Around 28,000 Virginians registered to vote after a federal judge extended the deadline for Virginia citizens to register to vote or update their voter registration to Oct. 21 after technical difficulties on the registration website prevented many from registering before the original Oct. 17 deadline.
According to the Virginia Department of Elections, 27,952 voter registration applications were submitted between the Oct. 20 court ruling and the 11:59 p.m. deadline for online registration on the following day.
In-person registrations were accepted at local general registrar offices and designated state agencies, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles or Department of Social Services. Voters also could register via mail, which had to be postmarked on or before Oct. 21.
Dena Potter, director of communications for the Virginia Department of General Services, said the totals for voters who applied in person and via mail were not yet finalized.
“Keep in mind that the nearly 28,000 figure represents both new voters and those who were applying to change their address,” Potter said in an email statement. “So it doesn’t necessarily represent 28,000 new voters.”
Potter said the Virginia Department of Elections was pleased with the number of voter registrations.
“We didn’t know what to expect, because we had never had an extension like that,” Potter said. “By comparison, though, there were over 38,000 voter registration applications processed in the 48 hours leading up to the original Oct. 17 deadline.”
Rosanna Bencoach, general registrar for the City of Charlottesville, said although the number of Charlottesville voters who registered after the original deadline is unknown, there are currently over 29,000 active registered voters in Charlottesville.
This is an increase of 3,331 since Sept. 1, Bencoach said, representing a 71 percent increase of active voters since January.
“Since students have returned we’ve seen a significant increase,” Bencoach said.
Bencoach also said there are about 6,000 inactive voters in Charlottesville, a number which is gradually decreasing.
“We believe that many of them have moved, so we really look at the number active voters. This is especially because college towns have a lot of inactive voters,” Bencoach said.
A voter who appears to have moved from their residence of registration, but has not responded to a request to confirm their residence, becomes “inactive” through the next two federal elections, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.
“Inactive” voters are eligible to vote if they re-register, appear at the polls or apply for an absentee ballot. They must also confirm that they have not moved out of their locality and congressional district. If inactive voters do not reactivate their registrations, they are “removed from the rolls” after two federal elections.
In 2008, voter registration between Sept. 1 and the close of books was 3,255, Bencoach said. In 2012, this number was 3,246.
Increased voter registration was expected this year in Virginia due to a higher number of eligible voters than in years past, Bencoach said.
“That’s what we planned for and what we planned our precinct staffing on,” Bencoach said. “This is turning out to be a very interesting election — this one is not a snoozer.”
Geoffrey Skelley, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, said federal courts in Florida and Virginia have extended voter registration deadlines due to potential interruptions in the registration process.
“It’s impossible to say how many actual votes will come from this late-registering group, but if it’s around 30,000, that would make up a little less than 1 percent of the 2012 total popular vote in Virginia,” Skelley said. “So is that number of votes likely to swing the presidential election in the Old Dominion? No, but it’s still possible that the group could make a difference in one of the elections on the ballot — federal, state or local.”