DATE: Wednesday, April 30, 1997             TAG: 9704290249

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Public Life 

SOURCE: By Jane Evans, The Virginian-Pilot Staff

LENGTH: 47 lines

MAKE SURE YOU'R REGISTERED TO VOTE

Last Election Day, some voters got snubbed at their polling places.

No firm numbers were available, but some who showed up to vote after using the convenient form at the Division of Motor Vehicles to register found their paperwork didn't catch up with their intention.

The paperwork problems were associated with the federal Motor Voter Act, which took effect in Virginia in March 1996. The law requiring states to allow voter registration by mail or through other government offices has boosted registration by at least 580,000.

If you have registered to vote in the past year, you should check your registration as well as the polling place before voting in the June 10 primary election and the Nov. 4 election for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and House of Delegates.

If you register by mail:

Make sure you sign your application.

If you don't receive your card within four weeks of registering or if you register close to the deadline, call your local registrar to check on your status.

If you need to find out if you are registered, what precinct you vote in or what to do if you have recently moved, call the registrar in your city.

Chesapeake: 382-6141

Norfolk: 664-4353

Portsmouth: 393-8644

Suffolk: 925-6391

Virginia Beach: 427-8683

Registration forms are available there; at any Division of Motor Vehicles office; or at offices of the Virginia departments of: health, social services, rehabilitative services, deaf and hard of hearing, mental health, visually handicapped, game and inland fisheries or department for the rights of veterans with disabilities. Some Veterans Administration Hospitals also have the forms.

The deadline to vote in the June 10 primary is 5 p.m. May 12. To vote in the Nov. 4 general election, you must register by 5 p.m. Oct. 6 KEYWORDS: ELECTION REGISTERED TO VOTE

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