Yet more problems to add to the growing list of potential Voting problems on Nov 2. This is a good read from today's
washington post.
Fairfax Election Office Swamped Employees, Board Raising Concerns
The Fairfax County registrar's office is facing a backlog of absentee ballot applications, has a shortage of experienced staff to answer questions and process new voter cards and is failing to check many of those cards for accuracy, records and interviews show. As a result, state and local election officials and many on the registrar's staff say they are concerned about confusion and delays when a record number of new voters could go to the polls Nov. 2 and tens of thousands of absentee ballots are counted.
...
"The biggest question I have is, have we done enough to make sure everybody who wants to vote gets a chance to vote?" said Larry E. Byrne, a member of the county's three-person Electoral Board, which sets policy for the registrar's office. "There's a lot of concern that we don't have enough bodies to do the work, and concern about whether or not the election is being conducted properly."
Since VA has the real potential to be a swing state this year, I think, considering Bush only won this state by less than 5,000 votes in 2000. (B: 395,312 G: 390,749)
Fairfax county alone, has received 16,000 new registrations...a typically right leaning county has slowly started shifting towards the left as more and more of the "lower/middle class" move west for more affordable housing in this area.
and if you are interested...a really neat map of the voting trends in the DC Metro area.
2000 Vote DC Metro