Voters in Charlottesville have just two days left to request a mail-in absentee ballot, and one Charlottesville official says requests so far have been low.
Absentee ballots are often indicators of voter turnout on election day. Sheri Iachetta, the general registrar for Charlottesville, said the office started taking requests Sept. 19. She said the low volume of requests may be due in part to the shortness of the ballot.
The ballot in Charlottesville this voting season contains just two candidates for U.S. Senate, two for the House of Representatives and one proposed constitutional amendment.
“If absentee voting is high then turnout is going to be high,” Iachetta said. “We have not seen a high absentee voting turnout. I think it’s because everybody is surprised that the ballot is so small. There are two races and a constitutional amendment, but people don’t even really know there’s a constitutional amendment on it.”
The proposed amendment exempts from taxation the property of any spouse of a member of the armed forces killed in action. This exemption would end if the surviving spouse remarries.
There are two ways to vote absentee in Charlottesville: in person or by mail. Voting absentee in person occurs at the Office of Voter Registration. It does not require any prior sign up, but must be completed no later than 4:30 p.m. Nov. 1.
To vote by mail, voters must send in the Absentee Ballot Application to the Office of Voter Registration, to be received no later than the Tuesday prior to the election day. After processing the application, a ballot is sent to the voter in the mail. This ballot is then due back to the electoral office no later than 7 p.m. on election day.
The processes differ from state to state.
“A lot of states have what’s called early voting,” Ianchetta said. “A lot of people think that our absentee voting is like early voting. The difference is … [absentee voting] means that you’re going to be absent on election day so there’s a reason that you’re needing to vote early.”
At the University, campus organizations like University Democrats and College Republicans have been encouraging students and community members to remember to vote on Election Day.
The University Democrats have been canvassing and phone banking to talk to voters and turn out the vote for the democratic ticket. College Republicans have been employing similar tactics.
Jay Boyd, third-year College student and director of communications and recruitment for the College Republicans, said they include information on absentee voting and how to receive an absentee ballot in these calls and emails.
Despite the low number of absentee voters in Charlottesville so far this year, Boyd said that the response to their outreach has been encouraging.
“Most of our outreach has been over the phone, … sometimes we go out and knock doors around the Charlottesville area,” Boyd said. “We’ve been able to reach thousands of [people] across the grid.”
Iachetta said her office has been active in encouraging people to vote through press releases, radio and television ads, as well as information sent to newspapers.
“We’ve done what we usually do to try to get the information out to people,” Iachetta said. “In Virginia you vote every November, always.”
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