What is it about Supreme Court decisions on voting that some county registrars in Virginia don't understand?

 

These officials apparently think they have a right to arbitrarily make their own rules and/or ignore the law.  My guess would be that most of these ignore-the-law local election officials are Republicans.

 

While the Supreme Court ruling on college students is clear and the Virginia state board of elections rule is transparent, certain local county registrars still break the law in order to make it difficult for college students to vote.

 

From The Nation: "Students at Radford University in Virginia got some bad news recently-- the local county registrar's office informed them that they were ineligible to vote because they listed their dormitory addresses on their voter registration application.

"The county registrar, Tracy Howard, told a local newspaper in October that "a dorm is generally--and I say generally--the same thing as a long-term motel stay." Some students who had registered using their school address had been sent postcards asking them to re-state their "home" address, and those that replied with dormitory addresses again were disqualified. Other students received no requests for clarification, and though they submitted applications more than a month in advance of the deadline, were notified of their ineligibility a week after it had passed.

"The Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that students may register to vote where they attend school, and the Virginia state board of elections explicitly states that a dormitory may constitute a valid address. What's more, the additional paperwork sent to students violates the constitutional requirements against discrimination against particular groups of voters, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The center, along with the ACLU of Virginia, sent a letter detailing these complaints last week, and threatening legal action if the students applications are not cleared. The ACLU has also set up a service through their website that allows voters to report problems they experience.

"This is just one of several instances of this type of behavior by Virginia registrars in countys (sic) with large college populations-- Montgomery County told Virginia Tech students that they could lose scholarships by changing their registration, and in Lynchburg county the registrar informed students he would check if their cars were locally registered and fine those who weren't.

"In 2006, the FBI started an investigation in Virginia after widespread voter suppression attempts, mainly through mailings and phonecalls providing false information, were reported almost exclusively in Democratic-leaning and minority communities. This year, with more than 40% of new registrants in Virginia under the age of 25, young people are the biggest threat to Virginia's red-state status. It seems no coincidence that students' rights are the ones being questioned this election."

Tracy Howard seems to be committing voter suppression and breaking the law.  So what do state officials intend to do about these law breaking anti-voter, un-American county registrars?