VCC Summer 2017

acquainted with candidates for statewide offices and the General Assembly. Our staff reaches out to every candidate, and most of them provide photos and information. However, if there is no response we include the information from the Virginia Department of Elections and or the Virginia Public Access Project. We always receive assistance from the Democratic and Republican Caucus staff. The candidates are listed in the order that they will appear on the ballot for the statewide offices and the House of Delegates. Prior to 60 days before the November election, party nominees that withdraw may be replaced by new candidates. Official information regarding the November election is available from local registrars and from the Department of Elections web site, elections.virginia.gov. An excellent source for campaign information is the Virginia Public Access Project, vpap.org . As we say, the directory includes all the ‘ winners ’—all of those who will be elected to serve. This will be correct until there’s another successful candidate who duplicates Jackie Stump’s 1989 winning write-in campaign for the House of Delegates. If you do not know the history of Stump’s election, you are missing an interesting aspect of recent Virginia political history.

By David Bailey Twenty-eight years ago, (1989) to write a haiku, I penned the words that became the title for the new directory of candidates. Elect No Strangers! If possible, elect friends. If not, make friends of those elected. Every year since 1990 David Bailey Associates has published Elect No Strangers to help interested Virginians become better

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A brief history continued from previous page

for other priorities. I’ll get into that next time. Yes, we’ve come a long way, baby, but there’s still a long way to go. Tracy Howard has served as the General Registrar/Director of Elections for the City of Radford since 1992 and is President of the Voter Registrars Association of Virginia.

most highly regarded in the United States. Even as Virginia is rated among the top three states in the nation in election administration and voter registration, there are still obstacles to overcome. It wasn’t until 2016, that Virginia finally made all local election offices full-time, allowing all Virginia Citizens equal access to registration and elections services. Local administrations still don’t know how to classify the General Registrar, and too often elections are overlooked, and underfunded

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KNOW AND BE KNOWN

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V irginia C apitol C onnections , S ummer 2017

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