Voter Registrar Office Receives Additional $21,000 from Council, Prepares for Upcoming Elections

Voters of Manassas Park have no less than four elections ahead of them in the next year, including a sheriff’s election in August, a general election in November, a presidential primary in March ad a Senate primary next June.

 Voter Registrar Patricia Brendel appeared before Manassas Park City Council this spring and requested monetary assistance from the city councilmembers prepared the .

“We had over 800 absentee ballots during the last election before we even made it to the polls,” Brendel said. “Not only do we deal with elections in this office, but we have to train poll officers, deal with candidate paperwork and take care of the every day running of an office.”

Brendel and her staff have a base budget of $136,185. The budget covers staffing in the office and at the polls, mailings, voting announcements in the paper, bilingual assistance for voters and all other sundry costs for the office.

During the , Brendel, who became emotional at times as she spoke, told the councilmen of all the office's responsiblites.

At that meeting, city council gave the office another $21,000 to operate in Fiscal Year 2012.

“Six thousand four hundred cards must go out to voters during this year’s redistricting, we are not responsible for the cards, however, we have to track down the owners of cards that come back as undeliverable,” said Brendel. “We also have to make sure we have enough trained volunteers to operate the polls and bilingual officers to help at voting locations.”

Manassas Park residents interested in volunteering at the polls can call Patricia Brendel’s office at: 703- 335-8806. Volunteers are offered a stipend of $110 for helping at the polls and $10 for training.

“Both funding and volunteers are needed for us to serve the citizens of our community to the best of our ability,” said Brendel.