Virginia’s Online Voter
Registration System Crashes,
Locking Out Eligible Voters on Day of Registration Deadline
Washington, D.C., October 18, 2016 – After receiving and investigating reports indicating that Virginia’s Online Voter Registration system crashed and malfunctioned, denying people a fair opportunity to register to vote on the day of the voter registration deadline, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has issued a letter urging state officials to take immediate action by extending the voter registration deadline. This extension will accommodate aspiring voters across the state who were denied the opportunity to register to vote because of this technological failure.
“All eligible citizens deserve a fair opportunity to register to vote,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Aspiring voters across the state of Virginia were denied the right to vote because Virginia’s Online Voter Registration system crashed at a very critical moment. The impact of the state’s error was exacerbated by the fact that it happened on a day in which we historically have seen registration rates peak. Eligible voters should not be penalized for the state’s failure. “
Voters who have questions about their registration status are urged to call the Election Protection hotlines: 866-OUR-VOTE for English language assistance, 888-VE-Y-VOTA for Spanish language assistance, and 888-API-VOTE for assistance in several Asian languages.
A copy of a letter issued by the lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Virginia Civic Engagement Table and New Virginia Majority can be found here. The groups’ request that the state extend the registration deadline through Friday, October 21, 2016 and provide immediate publicity regarding the extension.
About the Lawyers’ Committee
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
(Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed
in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the
private bar in providing legal services to address racial
discrimination. Formed over 50 years ago, we continue our quest of
“Moving America Toward Justice.” The principal mission of the Lawyers’
Committee is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice under
law, particularly in the areas of fair housing and community
development; employment; voting; education; environmental justice; and
criminal justice. For more information about the Lawyers’
Committee, visit www.lawyerscommittee.org.
Edgardo Cortés, Commissioner
Virginia Department of Elections
Washington Building, First Floor
1100 Bank Street, Richmond 23219
October 18, 2016
Dear Mr. Cortés:
We are writing on behalf of Election Protection, a non-partisan coalition formed to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process. As you may know, the Election Protection coalition operates a state of the art hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE, to assist citizens in obtaining accurate and timely information about voting. The coalition includes more than 100 local, state and national partners. Hotline volunteers fielded over 175,000 calls in the 2012 elections. In past elections we have worked cooperatively with your office and we look forward to doing now and in the future.
We write to express our concern that the Virginia online voter registration website malfunctioned repeatedly on October 16th and was down for at much of the day on October 17th, the last day to register to vote. During that time, our hotline received dozens of calls from Virginia voters – nearly half of those calls were from voters who had issues registering to vote, many of whom visited the site to register to vote or check their registration status, and were unable to do so. We fear that otherwise eligible voters in Virginia have not been able to submit their voter registration applications in a timely manner due to the website crashing. We are particularly concerned about the impact that this had on African American and other minority communities seeking to register to vote.
The right of eligible Virginians to vote should not be victim to a
technological
failure that is no fault of their own. In these extraordinary
circumstances, we urge
the State to reopen and extend the registration deadline in Virginia by
at least 72
hours and to adequately publicize the extension. Given that that we
first received
reports of the website crashing over the weekend, and then received
more reports
on October 17th, reopening and extending the registration deadline by
three full
days will both allow the State to get the word out about an extension
and
compensate for the time during which the system was down. Because there
may be
a delay before an extension is announced, we ask that the extension
include 72
hours plus any additional time that has lapsed since 11:59pm on October
17th.
Given that voter registration concluded last night, we request that you publicly announce that you are extending the voter registration deadline by no later than today, Tuesday, October 18th at 5:00 p.m. If an extension is not put into effect by 5pm today, we will assume that the Department of Elections and Board of Elections have decided not to act. If an extension is put in place, we request that every effort is made to publicize this decision as soon as possible, so that Virginia residents can take full advantage of the extension.
We believe that extending the voter registration deadline would further the public interest and help protect the rights of Virginians to participate in our democracy. The right to vote is a “precious” and “fundamental” right. Harper v. Va. State Bd. of Elections, 383 U.S. 663, 670 (1966). Courts have recognized that policies which extend this fundamental right to “permit[ ] as many qualified voters to vote as possible” are in the public interest. Obama for Am. v. Husted, 697 F.3d 423, 436- 37 (6th Cir. 2012).
Thank you for your consideration. We understand this is a tight timeframe and we appreciate all the hard work you and your staff do to help ensure the voting process runs as smoothly and equitably as possible, especially during this busy election season. Please contact Arusha Gordon at agordon@lawyerscommittee.org, Tram Nguyen at tnguyen@newvirginiamajority.org, or Julie julie@engageva.org to discuss further.
Sincerely,
Kristen Clarke
President and Executive Director
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington DC 20005-2124
www.lawyerscommittee.org
Julie Emery
Executive Director
Virginia Civic Engagement Table
engageva.org
Tram Nguyen
Co- Executive Director
New Virginia Majority
www.newvirginiamajority.org
James B. Alcorn
Chairman, Virginia Board of Elections
j.alcorn@elections.virginia.gov
Clarabelle Wheeler
Vice Chair, Virginia Board of Elections
clarabelle.wheeler@elections.virginia.gov
Singleton McAllister
Secretary, Virginia Board of Elections
singleton.mcallister@elections.virginia.gov
