Voter registration deadline nears

By JOY HAMPTON The Claremore Daily Progress Thu Oct 02, 2008, 11:23 AM CDT

Oct. 10 is the final day to register and still be eligible to vote in November’s election, said Rogers County Election Board Secretary Terri Thomas.

Rogers County residents can register at the County Election Board, 216 S. Missouri Ave., across from the County Courthouse in Claremore, from of 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Residents can also register via mail, P.O. Box 1029 Claremore, OK 74018-1029. A pdf of the registration form is available online at www.ok.gov/~elections/vrfrmshl.html/

Alternative sites for voter registration include local tag agencies. Those on public assistance can register through the Department of Human Services.

Voter registration drives are common this time of year, Thomas said, but this close to the deadline, she recommends voters go in person or mail registrations to the County Election Board.

If individuals have registered more than 30 days ago and still have not received a Voter’s Registration ID card, Thomas suggests registering again.

Each year a small percentage of registrations gets lost somewhere along the way.

“It’s hard to know what’s happened to those registrations,” Thomas said.

Michael Clingman, Secretary of the State Election Board, said places other than the local Election Board can be slow to turn in registrations on occasion.

“Most tag agencies understand the importance of getting registrations in quickly and do that, but there are a few that are slow getting them in and have to be coaxed,” Clingman said. “This doesn’t just stop with tag agencies.”

Clingman said entities holding voter registration drives can sometimes run into problems.

One year, Northeastern State University had a registration drive to get voters signed up in time for a vote on a new stadium. What those in charge of the university’s voter drive didn’t think about was that a vote over right-to-work was coming up before the stadium vote, Clingman said.

Voter registration applications were held instead of being submitted. When people showed up to vote for right-to-work, they were not on the registration lists.

Anyone holding a voter registration drive should understand that it is critical the applications are submitted to the Election Board in a timely manner, Clingman said.

According to a 2003 law, provisional balloting allows some protection for voters.

“If you go to vote and your name isn’t registered, we have the ability to call that office. If they still have the application, we can count the vote at that point,” Clingman said.

Tag agencies are asked to mail in registrations they’ve collected weekly on Fridays. If a voter turns an application into a tag office on Monday, that registration will likely sit in the tag office until the end of the week.

Tag agencies send the registrations to the central office in Oklahoma City, creating a further delay. The State Election Board then distributes registrations to County Election Boards.

For more information, telephone, Rogers County Election Board, 341-2965.

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