CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Secretary of State Mac Warner is looking forward to the voting process in the 2020 general election in West Virginia.
He appeared on Tuesday’s 580-LIVE on MetroNews affiliate 580-WCHS in Charleston and discussed the process. It was announced on Monday and includes a voter being able to request an absentee ballot online or by phone due to COVID-19 concerns.
His office rolled out the Absentee Ballot Application Portal, where beginning Aug. 11, voters will be able to complete an application. Voters who do not have access to the portal may still request an absentee ballot application form by contacting their county clerks by phone, email, or fax. The form will be mailed upon request.
“If you have those medical concerns just check the first block on the application that says medical excuse. It’s a medical reason for voting absentee,” Warner said on the show.
“It’s that simple. Other people have tried to complicate this, make it sound convoluted. It really isn’t.”
.@wvsosoffice Mac Warner talks with @HoppyKercheval about absentee voting for the General Election. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/KhEv3n8k9R
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) July 28, 2020
On Monday, Warner’s office released a summary report of meetings with the state’s 55 county clerks in the past three weeks, which detail the planning, administration, and voter participation of the primary election that was held in June.
Applications for an absentee ballot were mailed to all registered voters during the primary. Warner’s office said that has changed based on the results of the report.
“We have 1.2 million registered voters. Only about 230,000 people used the application process so over one million pieces of mail were sent out that were not used by anybody. Why would we go through the trouble again and the expense of doing so,” Warner said on Tuesday.
Warner said the state and its clerks did a tremendous job during the primary election, which was delayed due to COVID-19. He said there were zero reported cases of COVID-19 due to in-person voting.
He encourages all voters to check their registration and polling location ahead of the November election at GoVoteWV.com. The last day to register to vote or to update your current voter registration is Oct. 13.