Syracuse, N.Y. -- Many of the people who appeared before judges Donald Greenwood and Anthony Aloi in Election Day Court this morning thought they had registered to vote online through the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

"When they went to vote, they found they weren't registered," Aloi said.

They didn't have exact numbers, but both the judges and volunteer lawyers working through the day to help voters apply for court orders so they can vote said it seemed to be a significant problem.

Richard Romero, who hurried to Election Day Court on his lunch break, said he registered online through the DMV in early October. But when he went online to double check his registration recently, he found himself not registered to vote.

Aloi said it seems that, in some cases, the information is not getting from the DMV to the county elections boards.

Thomas Connolly, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said complaints about the DMV registration have not been widespread.

Joe Morrissey, a spokesman for the DMV, didn't shed much light on the voters' troubles. He said that the DMV website is set up so each county's board of elections can access the registration records specific to their county.

"Our records indicate that all voter registration application files through the voter registration deadline on October 14th for every county have been retrieved," Morrissey said.

Other top reasons for appearing in Election Day Court are people who missed the registration cut-off date of Oct. 14 but appeared to have extenuating reasons, and people who are new citizens, Aloi said.

Some of the new citizens he's seen so far today were naturalized after the cut-off date, but wanted to make sure they had a chance to vote.

Aloi, who sometimes naturalizes citizens, said that when he does, he explains how voting is a responsibility of citizenship.

He's seen some of those new citizens today.

"To see in their eyes the importance of it," Aloi said. "It's uplifting."

Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people, life and culture in Central New York. Contact her anytime: email | twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2246