CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Democrats in the House of Delegates say some of the changes in the 2020 election cycle brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic should be made permanent.
The delegates introduced “The Election Security, Accessibility and Modernization Act of 2021,” Tuesday.
The measure, HB 2814, proposes 16 changes to state code when it comes to elections.
House Minority Leader Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, said many things that happened last year were successful and should stay part of future elections.
“All we’re asking here is, how can we continue that success? How can we continue to move forward and continue to get record turnouts each election cycle,” Skaff said at a Tuesday morning news conference. “You’ll see that bill helps us continue to move forward not to move backwards.”
Skaff praised the Secretary of State’s Office and county clerks for the adjustments made last year in a trying time.
“We have a test pilot and it worked last year. We had something that created one of the best voter turnouts we ever had, even during a pandemic. So why not learn from that?”
The bill would continue no-excuse absentee voting and do so by mailing voters applications like took place before the June 2020 primary. The bill also extends the early voting period and deals with voter fraud.
The measure proposes state code to prohibit a voter from being removed from the voting rolls because they are considered an inactive vote. Bill sponsor, Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said residents should be allowed not to vote.
“No one should be stricken from the rolls simply because they don’t vote,” Doyle said. “Every American citizen has a right to vote and every American citizen has a right to vote and every American citizen has a right to choose not to vote if he or she desire.”
Current state code allows removal if a voter doesn’t respond to a county clerk after not having voted in two consecutive general elections for federal office. The bill changes the wording to say, “If a voter fails to respond, the county clerk shall leave the registration record of that voter ‘inactive’. Nothing in this section allows a voter’s registration record to be canceled solely for
failure to vote.”
Secretary of State Mac Warner’s office said Tuesday that Warner, working with county clerks, has made voter list maintenance a priority since he took office in January 2017. As of Tuesday, a total of 274,214 outdated, deceased, out of state, duplicate and convicted felon voter files have been removed. During the same period, 243,170 new and eligible voters have been registered including 66,000 high school students.
Warner’s office just received the 55-page bill Monday and was still reviewing its proposals Tuesday but the office did release a statement.
“Maintaining confidence in our election process will always be our highest priority. West Virginia’s county clerks administered a safe and secure election by keeping integrity at the forefront of their 2020 election administration. We look forward to reviewing and discussing every legislative proposal that seeks to modify election processes to ensure that West Virginia maintains the level of excellence we had in 2020,” Warner said.
Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said it only makes sense to take the current opportunity and the evidence of the recent past to move forward.
“Not only did we have more people voting in different ways but we had no increase in election fraud. So some of these things that we tried and experimented with last year we need to put in state code,” Hansen said.
The bill, which has no sponsors from the Republicans, who hold the super majority in the House, was sent to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration.
The November General Election had the second-highest voter turnout in state history at 802,722 ballots cast.
Warner’s office is expected to propose its own election-related legislation later this session.