By KELLY HANNON
A Virginia driver's license is not a ticket to vote.
You still have to register.
This misconception may have led some Virginia residents to arrive at precincts on Election Day expecting to vote when they were never registered.
In the Fredericksburg area, a small number of voters thought they had been signed up through the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, when they were not.
"DMV employees are not voter registrars. So you do not actually register to vote at DMV. You apply to register to vote," said Melanie Stokes, DMV spokeswoman.
In creating the so-called "motor-voter" law, Congress required state motor-vehicle offices to provide voter registration applications, beginning in 1995.
The key word in the law is "application."
When a customers arrives at the DMV office for a driver's license, an ID card or a change of address, a clerk asks if he is U.S. citizen and if he would like to register to vote, Stokes said.
Saying "yes" means the clerk will hand him a voter application form.
The customer must fill out the form--correctly--and return it to a DMV clerk or mail it to the State Board of Elections.
A driver who returns the form at the DMV office gets a receipt, which acts as a tracking slip. If a problem pops up later, the DMV can trace where the application was handled and whether it was filled out properly.
Some voters forget to sign the application, or do not check the box asking if they have ever committed a felony, Stokes said.
Any of these minor missteps means a voter application will be denied.
"The customer is responsible for ensuring the application is completed right and signed. That's not DMV's responsibility," Stokes said.
The DMV sends applications to the State Board of Elections, which processes them and sends the information to local registrars. Since 1996, the DMV has sent 4 million applications to the state board.
Anyone who turns in a voter registration application at the DMV should call the local registrar if he has not received a voter registration card within 30 days, Stokes said.
On Election Day, the DMV fielded calls from the State Board of Elections, seeking help with drivers who insisted they had registered to vote at the DMV.
In the Fredericksburg area, voter registrars reported a small number of voters who had that difficulty.
Stafford County voter registrar Sharon Persinger said fewer than a dozen people in the county experienced a problem.
There, the mix-up usually occurred online. The DMV asks customers conducting business on the Internet if they would like to register to vote.
If the person checks a box indicating "yes," the DMV will mail a registration application.
Some voters interpret checking "yes" online as registering, Persinger said.
Voters have to follow up by completing the form and mailing it in.
If there is a problem with a resident's form, such as a missing signature, Persinger said, she sends a denial with an accompanying reason. Persinger also sends a new voter application.
Caroline and King George county registrars said only a handful of voters were affected by motor-voter complications.
Registrars in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County were not available for comment.
The key throughout the process is for voters to register well ahead of deadlines so problems can be resolved in time, Persinger said.
Waiting until Election Day is too late. In Virginia, registration closes some 30 days before elections.
"That is not the time to call," Persinger said. "It's very important if you go to DMV and you haven't heard anything in 30 days, call your registrar then."
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com