Virginia judge won't extend voting hours, reallocate machines

By LARRY O'DELL

RICHMOND

A federal judge refused the NAACP's request to extend polling hours and reallocate voting machines to some heavily black precincts on the eve of a presidential election that is expected to produce unprecedented turnout.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams said Monday that the potential harm to state and local election officials making last-minute preparations for the election outweighed concerns that extremely long lines could discourage some people from voting, especially in heavily black precincts in Richmond and Hampton Roads.

However, the judge did order the State Board of Elections to immediately publicize the availability of curbside voting for people 65 and older and those with disabilities, as well as the fact that anyone in line by the time polls close at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote.

Attorney Kumiki Gibson, representing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, argued that some voters would essentially be disenfranchised by a system ill-equipped to cope with record turnout for the historic election between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, who could become the nation's first black president.

"I'm not being dramatic, your honor, but I can't underscore enough what's at issue here," Gibson said. "...Why would the defendants want to pursue a plan that would make voters question the outcome of an election?"

Williams, who was appointed to the bench by President Carter, said he was well-versed in the relevant case law and did not need to hear from the defendants before denying the request for the injunction.

Heightened interest in this election already is evident in the state's absentee voting totals. State election officials said one-tenth of Virginia's registered voters had cast absentee ballots by Saturday. As of Monday, 538,130 people had applied to vote absentee and 465,962 of those ballots have already been cast in a state that finds itself a presidential battleground for the first time in generations.

"It's unprecedented," State Board of Elections executive secretary Nancy Rodrigues said of the volume of absentee balloting, which will double the 222,059 absentee ballots cast in the 2004 presidential race in Virginia.

In some precincts, voters waited in line six hours to cast absentee ballots Saturday, the final day to vote absentee in person at local voter registrar offices statewide. Ballots cast by mail must be in the hands of local election officials by 7 p.m. Tuesday, and will be counted that night with the totals from polling places.

Virginia has added 436,000 people to its voting rolls since Jan. 1, a record-shattering effort paced by an aggressive voter registration and mobilization campaign led by Obama. Polls over the past week show Obama either about even or slightly ahead of McCain in their battle for 13 electoral votes in a state last won by a Democratic presidential candidate in 1964.

While the heavy pre-election turnout will relieve some pressure at polling precincts, apprehension among election officials over the crush of voters was heightened by the NAACP's lawsuit. The complaint asked the court to order polling hours extended in some precincts from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. It also asked that some localities be required to shift voting machines to heavily black precincts where voting could be heaviest, and that paper ballots be provided to voters who face waits of 45 minutes or longer.

The Virginia chapter of the NAACP filed the complaint a week ago. A hearing scheduled for last Thursday was canceled after NAACP officials received new information about the allocation of voting resources and said it would not be brought to court before the election. But late Friday, the NAACP renewed its request and the hearing was scheduled for less than 15 hours before the polls open at 6 a.m. EST on Tuesday.

The defendants in the suit, Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the state election board and election officials in several of the state's largest cities, have defended their preparations for Election Day, but said waiting in line is inevitable in an election this emotional and historic.

For instance, Rodrigues said, the state for the first time required localities to set aside paper ballots equal to 10 percent of the number of registered voters in precincts where touch-screen voting machines are used.

AP Political Writer Bob Lewis contributed to this report.