WASHINGTON — After calling for a big turnout, Virginia Republicans say 90 percent of the public comments on proposed changes to voter registration forms in the commonwealth oppose the change.
The changes would allow a single signature attesting that a person is eligible to vote to replace check boxes specifying things like the fact that the prospective voter is a citizen and has not lost his or her right to vote due to a felony conviction.
Democrats like Gov. Terry McAuliffe say the change would simply eliminate a redundancy on the form that can cause otherwise valid registrations to be thrown out.
“At the bottom, you have to sign a form that I am legally eligible to vote. That’s the only point. So do we need these other boxes? Because if you miss that box and submit it then your entire…form is thrown out,” McAuliffe said.
McAuliffe said he was unaware of the proposed change until reporters began asking ahead of a public hearing last month.
“This is why you have public hearings, to have conversations about what we ought to do,” he said.
But he and GOP leaders agree that the issue is just the latest to take on hyper-partisan tones in Virginia this summer.
In the news release announcing the public comment analysis, Republicans in the House of Delegates attacked the proposed change as a way to get more Democrats to register ahead of November’s General Assembly elections and the 2016 presidential race.
Fairfax Del. Jim LeMunyon called the issue one of “civic integrity”.
“Whether it’s a tax return, college loan application, driver license or welfare benefits, we expect our fellow citizens to fill out forms accurately and completely. The voter application form is no different,” he said in the statement.
For his part, McAuliffe likens the Republican opposition to the changes to what he sees as misguided GOP positions on social issues.
Ahead of this fall’s election, the rhetoric has picked up this summer on a number of other issues too, including Planned Parenthood and the selection of a new justice for the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Democrats are hoping to flip the Senate this fall, which currently sits at 21 Republicans and 19 Democrats.
Republicans are trying to prevent that, and to keep their majority in the House of Delegates large enough to override a veto.
