The Virginia State Board of Elections is reviewing recent voter-registration applications because of confusion among applicants, some of whom mistakenly identified themselves as non-citizens.
DMV spokesperson Melanie Stokes said the DMV is required to offer applicants for driver's licenses and ID cards an opportunity to apply for voter registration. Stokes said a law that took effect Jan. 1 requires the DMV to forward the names of voter-registration applicants describing themselves as non-citizens to the State Board of Elections. About 124,000 driver's license and ID card applicants have been referred to the Virginia State Board of Elections.
"Shortly after implementation of the law, DMV discovered inconsistencies in data entry and customer responses to the citizenship question," Stokes said. "For example, a U.S. citizen was indicating that he was not a U.S. citizen when he had been a registered voter for many years."
Stokes added that some DMV clerks made errors in transferring data from paper forms to computer databases, mistakenly identifying some Virginians as non-citizens.
SBE Deputy Secretary Valerie Jones said the names will be checked against the Commonwealth's database of registered voters to determine which applicants are not eligible to vote and which ones simply made a mistake on their registration form.
In light of the problem, Stokes said the DMV is now taking steps to verify all information regarding citizenship status and voter registration to ensure the problem does not persist.
-- compiled by Max Hall
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