City leaders say a registration error is keeping some students from voting in the 2016 presidential election.
In voters drives, which were popular on campus during the registration period in September and early October, some students put their home address instead of a local address, and so they could not vote in Oxford. Other voters left blanks on their applications, so their forms were marked as “pending.”
Lafayette County Circuit Clerk Baretta Mosley said Tuesday that her office contacted those who had pending registration forms and asked them to come complete the forms after the registration deadline, Oct. 8. Mosley said some people left small things undone, like the social security number area. Those who did not fix their forms cannot vote today.
“Those are pending,” Mosley said. “If it’s pending, it’s not on the poll books.”
Mosley said there weren’t “a lot” of registration issues with students, but that she had dealt with a few today. Today, Election Day, is too late to get these pending registration forms fixed.
The application errors can occur, Mosley said, when voters register in drives instead of with local authorities. Mosley said the best way to ensure your registration form is filled out correctly is to do it at the clerk’s office, where an attendant will help voters find their polling place, fill out absentee ballots or register for local voting.
