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KIM RAFF/THE NEWS & ADVANCE
Volunteers Thelma Chow (left) and Liberty University student Lauren Mason alphabetize voter registration forms at the Lynchburg Registrar’s office on Tuesday. The office is processing 600 to 800 new forms per day, up from about 200 per month, and need volunteers to help.
New-voter registrations in Lynchburg have boosted the voter rolls by an unprecedented 12 percent this year, with many applications from Liberty University students still to be processed.
The deadline for registering is Oct. 6, just five days away, and more than 200 applications are pouring in daily, said Pat Bower, Lynchburg registrar.
Volunteer helpers have enabled her office to keep pace.
Almost 3,000 voter application forms were processed during September, Bower said.
Liberty students sent an estimated 3,500 applications, and more than half of those had been entered into the voter database as of Monday.
The registrar’s office mailed lots of registration cards on Monday for students who registered at Liberty’s 1971 University Boulevard address.
“Liberty’s post office should be swamped this afternoon,” Bower said Tuesday.
Volunteers, including about 15 Liberty students and the League of Women Voters, have been using every available workstation in the registrar’s office, including three laptop computers that were added to a conference-room table last week, Bower said.
On Monday, another volunteer had to sit on the floor to sort registration forms into alphabetical order, Bower said.
Elsewhere in the state, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads — the most populous regions — have been registering new voters faster than other urban sectors.
Northern Virginia favors Democrat Barack Obama for president more heavily than any other region, according to a Mason-Dixon poll released last week. Hampton Roads favored Republican John McCain by a slight margin in the same poll.
Another Mason-Dixon poll, taken after Friday night’s presidential debate, is expected out later this week.
Reader Reactions
Excuse me, but if I let my children use my car and I live in another state, I will pay my state’s taxes, so sorry, and will still let my college student drive my car in another state. And to those who are so fit to be tied about LU on any subject, note this is happening at all the universities and colleges in this state (local voter registration). Those beacons of higher learning happen to indoctrinate their students in left of center thought (usually, I’ve been there to some). I do not see the local contingent of liberals screaming about that? Wow, surprise, surprise, you could knock me over with a feather with that truth.
The ACLU is apparently supporting the Federal legislation that is allowing out of state students to register from their dorm rooms. The potential impact this has on local governments will be overwhelming…Goodlatte , Goode, Webb and WARNER (Im an optimist) should be called in for a forum on this one issue alone along with Putney, Newman and Byron.
someone should post out in the parking lots of the voting stations and see the liberty student parking stickers coming in with their out of state tags. they can’t have registered cars in the city unless their cars are registered in virignia right?? therefore they are going to have to have virginia tags. and if they are not report them so we can get their votes not counted, not sure of the voting laws but i am sure there is something that can be done. they want to vote on matters that involve the city well thats fine do something that your school doesn’t and pay taxes, the falwells know they have no support within the citizens of the city, that is why they are reaching to their pathetic joke of students. i see this story has hit CNN hopefully in his attempt to be as dumb as his father this will backfire, you can’t get away with what your dad did in the past it’s a different world. let’s get that tax exemption jerked right out from their feet. jonathan falwell really needs to take over LU and TRBC, he is cool headed, smart, great responses to questions. jerry junior is a blabbing idiot, you will never reach the level of your father, you may reach the level of stupidty because you are off to a great start, but please just give us a break…please we thought the embarrassment and headache was gone. i mean really do they have the same father?
Welcome, new Liberty U voters!
Remember, as you wait to cast your ballot in November, be sure to register your car HERE and PAY YOUR TAXES HERE And Jerry, Jr., some words of advice: if your students don’t pay their fair share, the rest of us will make sure they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, just like any other tax dodging “citizen” would be. If you want to vote here, you have to do everything that every other resident here has to do.
Have a nice day.
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