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Student voter registration forms lost, fault unclearVoter registration forms filled out by at least three Flat Hat staff members are missing as of today, and those who filled out forms will not be able to vote in the City Council election tomorrow. The registrations were handled several weeks ago by Student Assembly Sen. Michael Douglass ’11, a campaign volunteer for Matt Beato ’09. “I took them directly to the office,” Douglass said. But Williamsburg Voter Registrar Win Sowder said that, to her knowledge, she never received the forms. “When forms come into the office, they don’t leave,” Sowder said. “We don’t throw any registrations away. You would have gotten a letter if they were not approved.” Sowder added that she looked carefully for the missing forms, checking for each name that they were supposed to have received. She said that the office was handling forms carefully. “I promise you that we were very careful with every single application that came into this office. We don’t want to disenfranchise anyone,” she said. David Sievers ’07, Beato’s campaign manager, said that on the whole the campaign has been pleased with the registrar’s performance. “The registrar has been very helpful and very professional,” Sievers said. “On the other hand, Michael is one of the most dilegent people on the campaign, and I can’t imagine this was due to negligence on his part.” More than 1,000 students have registered to vote since Sowder assumed office. Previously, student voter registration forms were generally denied because former Registrar Dave Andrews did not consider students permanent Williamsburg residents. |
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So for those people whose forms have been lost (I am among these people), there is just a form floating out there with our names and Social Security numbers and everything on it? Great.
— Kate May 6, 09:02 AM #
I was more than dismayed to show up to the Community Building and find out that there was NO record that I had even been registered. Thanks for nothing, Michael Douglass.
— Dan May 6, 08:31 PM #
Or Douglass is lying about taking them to the office. Did that possibility ever occur to anyone?
— Dave May 9, 11:30 AM #
I would like to clarify my comments on this case regarding the responsibility of the parties involved. My quotation in the article does not fairly represent my full viewpoint on the situation.
I am quoted in this article as saying “The registrar has been very helpful and very professional. On the other hand, Michael is one of the most dilegent people on the campaign, and I can’t imagine this was due to negligence on his part.” This quote implies the placement of blame on Mrs. Sowder by expressing a predisposition to believe Michael Douglass not to have been at fault for the case in question. This was not my intention.
What I meant to convey in my interview was surprise at any forms being missing and faith in all parties involved. This was the first case of unaccounted-for registration forms in our registration drive, a fact that implies dependability in both the office of voter registrar and in our campaign volunteers.
I said the quoted comment only after explaining how positive our experience with Mrs. Sowder had been and how I do not believe her office to be at fault. The comment about Michael Douglass was intended to qualify this assertion by expressing surprise that he would lose forms, given that he was perhaps our most committed volunteer. Though I trust Michael a great deal, I have a harder time believing that Mrs. Sowder, with her genuine and demonstrated commitment to registering voters and her sworn obligation to do so, misplaced these forms than that Michael did.
Mrs. Sowder has been wonderful to work with and I have nothing but positive things to say about her. She was highly responsive to questions from the Beato campaign and possessed a sincere commitment to every voter applicant. Our campaign successfully registered more than 300 voters with Mrs. Sowder’s office in the weeks before April 7th. Despite the high volume of our drive, each form was welcomed by Mrs. Sowder, promptly processed, and led to either a registration or, in the case of incomplete forms, following-up with the applicant. The instances of unaccounted-for applications described in this article was the first I had encountered through our drive or anecdotally from prior registrants. This record confirms the comment by Mrs. Soweder that forms that enter the office do not leave.
This excellence stands in stark contrast to the performance of the previous voter registrar, whose practices were inconsistent and with whom unaccounted-for forms were cause for concern. Having run registration drives under both registrars, I cannot emphasize enough how pleased I am with Mrs. Sowder’s performance. I place full trust in her office, including in the statement that they never received the forms in question. .
I apologize for being unclear if my interview did not convey the views I have laid out here. In either case, I ask that these comments be taken as a more complete statement.
It is unfortunate that the applications in question never completed their registration processes and I apologize for whatever role the campaign had in this shortcoming.
— David Sievers May 11, 03:33 AM #
I would like to second and reiterate David’s comments. As someone who has conducted voter registration drives under Ms. Sowder and under the previous voter registrar, I can say that Ms. Sowder should be commended for actually following the law in contrast to the previous registrar. I place complete trust that she has followed and upheld her oath as an officer of the Commonwealth. She has gone above and beyond her duty to make sure that every applicant is treated fairly. I have seen what a malicious registrar is, and Ms. Sowder is not a malicious registrar.
— Matt Beato May 11, 02:29 PM #