Montgomery County electoral officials face the challenge of preparing for an increased voter turnout expected for the Nov. 4 general election. Montgomery County has received a record number of registrations, and expects an 85 to 90-percent turnout.
According to the county's estimations, somewhere between 45,000 and just over 50,000 registered voters are expected for this year's election. As of Oct. 15, the number of registered voters totaled 55,850.
Randy Wertz, general registrar of elections for Montgomery County, said the number was unexpected for those at the county's voter registration office.
"We plot and keep an idea of what the turnouts going to be, and what we plan for registrations and things like that," Wertz said. "In this year, it's gone off the scale. There's no way in the world anybody could have predicted we'd have this number of people registering this year based on historical data."
In the 2004 general election, 70.34 percent of registered voters in Montgomery County made their way to the polls, while in the 2000 general election 66.53 percent of registered voters in the county voted.
With 85 percent to 90 percent of the registered voters expected to come to the polls, Wertz was excited about the potential turnout.
"That is huge. Nobody across the country has seen this type of thing," Wertz said.
However, the large number of voters has forced the county to scramble to make sure their resources are adequate. As one measure of preparation, Wertz said the county has added voting machines to the larger precincts.
"At E-1, our largest precinct, we've gone from a norm of five machines, and we've added two more," Wertz said.
To alleviate lines to the voting booth, additional election officers will be present, so that there will be one election officer per voting machine. Also, to speed up voting, county officials are dividing poll books in larger precincts.
"Normally in our larger precincts we have the books split two ways, so you have two lines, so that's been the norm," Wertz said. "This time we're splitting them three ways, so that you'll have three separate lines and that way it should move people a lot quicker."
Another way that students could speed up their Election Day experience is by knowing the rules and regulations concerning the proof of identity required at the polling place.
Virginia guidelines split between those who have previously voted at a polling place and those who have not. Straightforwardly, either category can show a voter registration card and be permitted to vote. However, the requirements for the two categories of voters slightly diverge here. For first-time voters, identification with a photograph -- a passport, a Virginia driver's license or a Virginia Tech student ID -- will suffice.
Those who have voted previously at a given location can provide documents without photographs, such as utility bills or a social security card, as documentation for their identity at the polling place. First-time voters without photo identification -- but possessing non-photo identification -- will be asked to fill out a provisional ballot that will be cast and counted as all other ballots.
Currently the county is using 48 poll books, with eight precincts using three poll books, four with one poll book, and the rest with two poll books.
Montgomery County has also brought in approximately 200 polling workers to help with running the election.
"You don't have the delay in having to wait for the officer of election to set the ballot for you," Wertz said. "All you have to do is come up, they set up the ballot, they step away, and you vote, and it takes you 15 to 20 seconds to vote."
The 2008 election's spike in registered voters comes with heavy interest from supporters across party lines. Wertz pointed to the lack of an incumbent as one of the reasons for increased interest in the presidential election.
"I just think this is the first election in a long time where we haven't had an incumbent somewhere in there. Having two totally new candidates in there, there's more interest in that," Wertz said.
The last election without either a presidential or vice presidential incumbent was in 1952, when Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson.
Despite the high number of registered voters, whether these voters will turn out is another question. This is a particular consideration with young voters.
"The thing is if the students show. History is not very favorable to that," Wertz said. "College students are not the most motivated to do something like that. It's interesting to see if it actually turns out that way."
Wertz added that class schedules could prevent students from going to the polls. However campus leaders were confident that student voters would get out the vote.
Carlin Crowder, chair for the College Republicans at Virginia Tech, said that the hours that the polling places are open give students plenty of time to get out to the polls.
"They've made sure polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. -- it's a 13-hour window," Crowder said. "It's a perfectly large window for students to get out there and vote."
Dan Geroe, president of Young Democrats at Virginia Tech, encouraged students to get to the polls.
"There could be lines, but in the end you can't let that turn you away," Geroe said. "This is the most important election for the next 20 years."
Despite worries to the contrary, Wertz was confident that the election would run smoothly. However, in the event of something wrong, the county has prepared multiple backup options. Beyond the extra workers and machines to voting areas, the county has also purchased paper ballots in case the need arises.
Wertz said that there have been technical issues with several of the voting machines in the past.
"We had some issues with some of these because one of the power switches where the power gets to the DRE (direct-recording electric voting machine) was loose, so whenever you had it inside the case, the power would shift, so you wouldn't be able to feed electricity into the battery and it would die," Wertz said.
However, Wertz assured that repairs were made to the machine, and that the voting machines would be working at full strength on Election Day.
Another problem that Wertz predicted could occur is voters wearing candidate paraphernalia within the confines of the polling areas. According to state law, voters are prohibited from wearing items such as T-shirts, buttons or stickers that broadcast a political message within 40 feet of a polling area's entrance. Wertz said the county has figured out a plan to deal with those breaking the rules.
"The way we've been instructed by the state board to handle (shirts) it is to have them take it off, or reverse them, or do something to hide it," Wertz said. "State law is really clear that if they go within that 40 feet and wear that then it's considered campaigning."
Wertz said they would take the names and addresses of people breaking the law and turn it over to the state attorney. The offense is a class-one misdemeanor; it would not affect a person's ability to vote.
Another item that has yet to be seen is the financial cost of the election for the county. While Wertz wasn't able to figure out an exact monetary cost for running the election, he was sure the costs would be substantial.
"This will be the most expensive election that we've ever had," Wertz said.
With the elections only days away, polls have shown the two presidential candidates with only a slight margin between them. According to a Rasmussen poll taken Oct. 29, Democrat Barack Obama holds a nine-point lead over his Republican rival, John McCain, in Virginia.