Office of Elections

Overview

The General Registrar is appointed by the Dickenson County Electoral Board, composed of three members appointed by the judge of the 29th Judicial Circuit of which Dickenson County is part. Electoral Board appointments are based on representation of the two political parties having the highest and next highest number of votes in the Commonwealth of Virginia for Governor at the last preceding gubernatorial election. The Electoral Board also appoints Officers of Election to work at polling locations during elections.

The Office of Voter Registration and Elections perform several vital functions for our community, some of which include:

• Process the DMV OVR Hopper. These are applications that are received electronically from the DMV. They include new registrations, name changes, address updates, and duplicate registrations.
• Process all voter registration applications received from The Department of Elections, public assistance offices, by mail, from a candidate, received on election day at the polls, or from a third party registration drive.
• Register and mail to other localities applications that come into our office from voters who reside outside of our county.
• Process purged voters from the Felony Hopper, Death Hopper, and Mentally Incapacitated Hopper.
• Demonstrate how to mark the Optical Scan ballots as well as feed them into our ICE machines for citizens.
• Produce and mail voter notification letters, denials, and cancellations
• NVRA Purge. This process cancels the voter registration record of those voters whose registration record has been in an "Inactive" status for two (2) successive General Elections for Federal Office.
• Complete the budgets for both the Electoral Board and the General Registrar's Office.
• Contact Officers of Election by phone, email, text, or Facebook message from the previous year to see who plans to work the upcoming year.
• Mail letters of appointment to Officers of Election and Alternates for the upcoming year.
• Review/update the Continuity of Operations Plan for our office and the Electoral Board
• Review/update the Security Plan for the Electoral Board
• Work with candidates to complete candidate forms, campaign finance reports, as well as check petitions for independent candidates.
• Prepare for elections which include:
  • Proofing Optical Scan ballot proofs
  • Prepare order for official ballots and sample ballots from Ben Franklin Printing Company
  • Prepare Notice of Election for The Dickenson Star
  • Contacting Officers of Election by various means such as phone, text, email, or Facebook messages.
  • Training Officers of Election which includes:
    • Determine dates and times for training. These trainings are held of the evening during the week. Typically, they start at 6pm and run until 9pm or later.
    • Determine a location contacting all Officers of Election to schedule which training they can attend
    • Preparing copies of election forms/envelopes/boxes to be used for training
    • Setting up the training room
    • Updating the training PowerPoint.
  • Absentee voting by mail and in-person begins 45 days prior to Election Day and runs until the Saturday before the election. Prepare and mail all absentee ballot packets required by mail which include:
    • Certificate of mailing sheets for our office and the United States Postal Service
    • Instructions
    • Assistance Forms (If needed)
    • Envelope A with ballot enclosed
    • Envelope B with Oath of Voter printed on it
    • Return envelope for mailing envelope B and assistance form back to Electoral Board
  • Prepare and mail request for Absentee Ballot Applications as well as Voter Registration Applications daily.
  • Prepare precinct envelopes and boxes to be used by each precinct on Election Day. These are used on Election Night to place all used materials in for return to the Electoral Board.
  • Prepare all forms to be used at the precinct on Election Day.
  • Oversee, along with the Electoral Board the testing and programming of 13 ICE Voting Machines.
  • Prepare all pollbooks for the precincts. This includes printing them, hole punching each one, placing them in the binder that corresponds to each precinct, and labeling them with the alphabet.
  • Determine the number of ballots to be sent to each precinct. Verify the count and package those for delivery.
  • Prepare a schedule for the delivery of all security cages and ICE Voting Machines. Contact all schools to be sure that someone will be there to let the County Maintenance Department and Electoral Board member in at the time of delivery, as well as to make sure someone will be there for picking up the supplies the day after the election. Also find out who will be in charge of opening and closing the schools on Election Day and get emergency contact numbers in the event we have to reach someone.
  • Pack all election supplies mentioned above for 11 precincts into security cages and prepare the cages for delivery.
  • Assist the Electoral Board and County Maintenance Department with the loading and unloading of all ICE Voting Machines and security cages. There are 9 of each that require two delivery trips.
• National Change of Address list maintenance. The Department of Elections performs an address check with the United States Postal Service; any voter that has an address that does not match will be mailed a confirmation notice. We must process the confirmation letters that are returned to us by the voter, as well as key the ones returned undeliverable as such. We must mail letters to those that are returned undeliverable and the United States Postal Service has provided us with an address they feel is now correct on the outside of the returned envelope.
• National Change of Address Hopper. Again this is done when The Department of Elections performs their address check with the United States Postal Service. Any voter that has changed their address within the county, are placed in our NCOA Hopper. We must check each one and determine by calling, emailing, or mailing an address confirmation letter to these voters at the address provided in the hopper, if what the NCOA Hopper shows as their resident address is correct.
• Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck/Electronic Registration Information Center Program. This is a report that comes from The Department of Elections listing names of individuals that are registered in our locality as well as another participating state. We must work to investigate each name on the list and determine if it is the same person, as well as when they registered to vote in our locality vs. when they registered in the other state. We must also check voting history for both our locality and the other state and determine where the voter last voted. We mail letters to each of these individuals requesting the most current, correct information regarding their resident address.

For More Information

For more information, contact us at (276) 926-1620.