U.S. GOVERNMENT | A resilient balance of institutions
30 October 2008
Virginia Election Board Counters Attempts to Mislead Voters
Candidates reinforce key themes as excitement builds in races’ final week
Washington — As November 4 approaches, candidates for office in the Virginia 2nd Congressional District are busy making their final pitches to voters. Newspapers, television screens and phone lines are abuzz with accusations and policy debates.
Even the Virginia State Board of Elections was dragged into the fray this week, after a bit of mudslinging was directed at the electoral process itself.
A flier circulating in parts of the Virginia 2nd said incorrectly that Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters should vote November 4 and that Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents should vote November 5. The flier claimed the separate dates for voting by party were enacted by the Virginia Legislature to ease the strain on the polls.
The Board of Elections quickly issued a statement saying it did not produce the flier, and reminded all voters to get to the polls between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. November 4.
Election tricks by overly zealous partisans are not new, but the flier underscores the tensions in this election year. More than 306,000 new voters had registered in the state as of September 30, and high voter turnout is expected on November 4. Polls show that Virginia, which has not voted for a Democratic candidate for president since 1964, is leaning toward Senator Barack Obama.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine said on his monthly radio show that the state has 4,600 more voting machines than during the 2004 presidential election and 30,000 poll workers, 10,000 more than four years ago.
Nonetheless, the Virginia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has filed a lawsuit alleging the state failed to prepare adequately for an unprecedented Election Day turnout, and former Virginia Governor and current Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder has called on the state to extend its polling hours. A federal district court in Richmond scheduled a hearing on the NAACP suit for October 30.
Meanwhile, candidates continue sounding familiar themes in an effort to get those voters to the polls.
CONGRESSIONAL CONTESTS
In the race for the 2nd District’s congressional seat, Democratic challenger Glenn Nye has focused on the area’s military voters in the campaign’s closing weeks, hoping to capitalize on his foreign service experience to woo one of Hampton Roads’ largest constituencies.
Specifically, Nye has honed in on incumbent Representative Thelma Drake’s initial vote against expansion of military veterans’ benefits earlier in 2008. That law authorized a benefits program that funds the cost of a college education for service members. Drake voted against the initial version of the expansion bill, pushed by Virginia Senator Jim Webb, in May, citing a looming presidential veto. In June, she voted for a Republican-backed package after Webb’s bill passed the Senate.
As Nye criticized her “no” vote in an increasingly heated contest, Drake responded that he is distorting her record and “should be ashamed of himself.”
A poll taken earlier in October showed Drake leading Nye 51 percent to 37 percent. The telephone poll of 400 likely voters was conducted by Research 2000, which bills itself as a nonpartisan research firm.
In the Senate contest, former Virginia governors Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore are addressing the nation’s economy.
In the final weeks, Warner continues to tout his bipartisan budget reform as governor, pointing out how lessons from Virginia could be applied to the federal deficit in Washington. Warner came into office facing a $6 billion budget shortfall and worked with a Republican Virginia Legislature to balance the budget and pass a tax reform package.
Gilmore points out that Warner pushed through a $1.4 billion tax hike after promising not to raise taxes. He paints Warner as a tax-and-spend liberal and himself as a fiscal conservative.
“We must hold the line on taxes,” Gilmore said in a voter guide published by the Virginian-Pilot, a leading newspaper in the 2nd District. “Raising taxes in a troubled economy would be a disaster for working Virginians who are already struggling.”
Warner led Gilmore 58 percent to 33 percent in a telephone survey of 625 likely state voters conducted October 20 and 21 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc.
LOCAL RACES
Important local races on the ballot this November in the Virginia 2nd include a Virginia Beach mayoral race in which incumbent Meyera Oberndorf is trying to keep the job she has held for more than 20 years. She is being challenged by bank president and former vice mayor Will Sessoms, former Navy SEAL Scott Taylor and former city councilman John Moss.
Voters in the 2nd District also will make selections in five-way races for an at-large city council seat and an at-large school board seat. Voters in the Centerville, Kempsville and Rose Hall districts will vote on district representatives to the city council and school board, and voters in the Princess Anne district will choose someone to fill the remainder of an unexpired school board term that runs until December 2010.
In Virginia, as in many states across the nation, elected school boards oversee the operations of the local public school system for primary and secondary education. These races are generally nonpartisan and the positions sometimes are unpaid.
This article is part of America.gov’s continuing coverage of seven of the 435 U.S. congressional districts during the 2008 campaign. Each offers a different prism through which to view U.S. politics. For more information, see U.S Elections — State and Local.
