Michael Wade, chairman of the Third Congressional District Republican Committee, has compiled a list of college students — including some at the University — who are currently under suspicion by his office of intending to vote twice in today’s presidential election.
Each student on the list, Wade said, has registered to vote in the commonwealth of Virginia in addition to requesting an absentee ballot from an out-of-state location. The listed students are all newly registered in Virginia, he added, and oftentimes a student’s request for an absentee ballot came just a few days before or after the Virginia voter registration date. In response to his findings, which came as the result of a series of Freedom of Information Act requests in seven states, Wade said he is in the process of sending the list of students’ names to Virginia’s general registrars and local electoral boards, asking those officials to ensure the students vote fairly.
According to Virginia Code 24.2-708, if a person requests an absentee ballot but decides not to vote absentee, he should return the ballot unopened “to the electoral board, on or before the day of the election.”
A statement released by the Virginia State Board of Elections warned of the consequences of voting twice. The statement notes that anyone who votes in two localities could be charged with a class 6 felony, which has the potential to garner a punishment of one to five years in jail.
According to Virginia Code 24.2-651, election officials must question anyone who is “listed on the pollbook but is known or suspected not to be a qualified voter,” for instance, because of their previous participation in the election. Students who are questioned by election officials would still be allowed to vote in Virginia but would first have to sign an affidavit stating that they have only voted once in the election, Wade said.
“The whole idea is that [students] better be careful about what they do,” Wade added. “There seems to be a bunch of people doing this ... A lot of people have been misled and may not understand that it’s a felony, but they need to pay attention to it.”
Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta said yesterday afternoon that she was unaware of Wade’s list. Wade noted that voting officials should receive an e-mail from him and that following the election, officials will continue their investigation to determine whether any of the listed students violated the law by comparing voting records from Virginia and the states from which students requested absentee ballots. Any students that vote twice will be prosecuted accordingly, Wade said.
Wade refused to disclose names on his list, citing privacy issues. An e-mail sent by Wade noted that students registered in two localities are innocent until proven guilty of having actually voted twice.
—compiled by Tom Christensen
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