County Estimates Reveal More Registered Voters than Eligible Citizens

On August 3, Supervisor Vega attempted to issue a directive to the County Attorney’s office to study state and local codes and laws which have allowed for more registered voters on Prince William County’s voter rolls than eligible citizens residing in the county.

At the request of a constituent, data on the number of 18 year old+ citizens in Prince William County was obtained through Supervisor Vega’s office and provided by the county demographer. A July 2019 U.S. Census estimate showed that 290,939 18 year old+ citizen resided in Prince William County.

Between July 2019 and July 2021, the county demographers office estimates that the county grew by a little more than 7,600 residents.

On July 8, 2021, the Commonwealth of Virginia released the latest voter registration numbers for Prince William County, following its most recent removal of ineligible voters. The data, which can be viewed here, shows that there were 303,351 voters in the county as of last month.

Even if one assumes that the net gain of 7,600 more residents since July of 2019 resulted in 7,600 more registered voters (improbable, and frankly a statistical impossibility), the number of eligible adult citizens is still less than the number of supposedly registered voters on file in Prince William County.

Supervisor Vega noted that if accurate and clean information to protect our democracy is the standard then having more registered voters than eligible citizens is quite literally impossible.

Yet, that’s what the numbers show in Prince William County.

Following the pulling of her directive, Supervisor Vega sent this e-mail to her colleagues, including the data obtained by the state and local government bodies, asserting that wanting to have clean and accurate voter rolls on behalf of the voters of Prince William County was not a “controversial” proposition.

During Vega’s directive, Supervisor Margaret Franklin contended that the removal of ineligible voters from the voter rolls was a controversial move, and one which she opposed.

As stated in this newsletter last month, Supervisor Vega does not believe that Prince William County’s inaccurate voter rolls impacted any races on the ballot in 2020. However, she maintains that clean and accurate rolls must be kept to ensure trust in the process for future elections in Prince William County and general, good government bookkeeping.

Supervisor Vega plans to bring the directive forward again now that her colleagues have been provided access to the citizen and registration numbers provided by Prince William County and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

– Coles District Staff