As the election draws closer for the next president of the United States, St. Charles Parish residents who didn’t register to vote by Oct. 6 won’t be allowed to vote for John McCain or Barack Obama. Registrar of Voters Brian Champagne says that by law everyone has until 30 days prior to an election to register to vote.
The time period gives Champagne and the Secretary of State a chance to verify the residency of the applicant.
“Voters are not just dropped, there is a process for removing a voter from the roll,” Champagne said.
If the address a voter is registered under cannot be verified by the U.S. Postal service, an address confirmation card is sent to the voter to confirm whether they still reside in St. Charles Parish.
“If we receive the card by return mail without an updated address, then the voter is placed on ‘inactive status,’” he said. “At anytime a voter can confirm his address to our office in writing or if he goes to vote he may fill out a confirmation form request.”
A voter is also taken off the roll if they have been on inactive status for two federal general elections. Champagne says his office is required by law to publish a list of those names.
“We are required to publish the list of inactive voters in the parish’s official journal (The St. Charles Herald-Guide) 90 days before a federal election,” he said. “The first list was published in the Herald-Guide on Dec. 6, 2007.”
Another list of names was published in the Herald-Guide on May 29.
Champagne said that there is no “purge” of the voter roll done arbitrarily by the state.
“Voters are taken off the rolls if they are deceased or convicted of a felony,“ he said. “Since October 2007, we have removed 382 deceased people from the voter roll due to the backlog of death certificates being entered into the Department of Health and Hospital’s Social Security database. Ninety-seven state and federal felons, 19 irregular registrations and 818 people that transferred out of the parish have also been removed.”
Champagne said there are 33,924 eligible voters in St. Charles Parish and he anticipates that 70 percent of them will vote in November.
“Anyone in or out of jail, who is still pending a trial and not convicted of a felony, still may vote for the presidential election,” he said. “Those persons can request an absentee ballot, but they must do it before Oct. 31.”
Champagne says it’s also time to put an end to the rumor mill. He says that a voter registration card is not required to vote.
Early voting begins on Oct. 21 and last through Oct. 25. It begins again on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28 at the courthouse and the Artebury Building.
The office will be open from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Voters who cannot vote early, and who will be out of the parish on Nov. 4, have until Oct. 31 to request an absentee ballot form on the Registrar of Voter’s website at www.stcharlesgov.net/departments/rov.html.
Absentee ballots must be received at the Hahnville Post Office box of the Registrar of Voters by Nov. 3.
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