Two groups – one that focuses on conservative issues and one that seeks to sign up minority, female and young voters, have been confusing Virginians with misleading letters about their voter registration status, the state Department of Elections says.
The department said it has received numerous calls from voters who were concerned about their right to vote after receiving letters from America’s Future Inc. and the Voter Participation Center that suggested their registration status was uncertain.
“I don’t think these groups are trying to discourage people from voting. It was just poorly done,” said elections department spokesman Martin Mash.
The Voter Participation Center, which mailed letters to 541,000 Virginians, used commercial residential databases and matched them to state voter files to identify people who haven’t registered but who are otherwise eligible, said president and founder Page Gardner.
“VPC spends significant resources to fine tune its lists and mail only to unregistered, eligible voters,” Gardner said.
The center’s mailings come in envelopes that say they enclose a time sensitive, official government document. The cover letter, which is on the center’s letter head, informs voters that “according to our records” they are not registered to vote in the jurisdiction where they live. There is a notice in a smaller type at the bottom of the letter than advises that the center is not a government entity.
The mailings include a copy of the form used to apply to register to vote, and a prepaid return envelope that goes to a post office box where the center gathers the forms to track response to its mailings before sending the forms on to election officials.
The center focuses its registration efforts on three groups – minorities, millennials and unmarried women – with lower rates of registration.
We sent letters to thousands of citizens across America encouraging citizens to register to vote. We hope they will register and then that they will exercise their right to vote for candidates of their choice at every level,” said Ed Martin, president of the Eagle Forum, speaking on behalf of America’s Future.
The Eagle Forum is a conservative group that focuses on family values issues. The website of its America’s Future affilliate describes it as being dedicated to preserving the free enterprise system and the Constitution and includes posts supporting limits on immigration as well as detailing court decisions supporting property and gun rights.
The elections department said some voters who are already registered received letters from the two groups. Some went to people who were not qualified to vote at the mailing address used, and some went to people who had died.
Local voter registrars and the state elections department go through an elaborate set of checks to make sure that people who apply to be registered to vote are in fact entitled to, checking against a series of databases of deaths, addresses, criminal records and registration in other states.
Election officials say it is easy to check your registration is by going to the state elections department’s secure website portal, vote.virginia.gov or by calling the voter registrar in your city or county.
Ress can be reached by telephone at 757-247-4535.
