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West Virginia elections changes proposed, including deadline to request absentee ballot

West Virginia’s Secretary of State’s Office has several proposed changes to election law, including a 12-day deadline for requesting an absentee ballot.

The office outlined proposed bills dealing with elections changes to West Virginia lawmakers today, hoping the background will help lawmakers begin giving them due consideration. And elections officials said they hope the kinds of challenges to election law changes in other states would prove to be unnecessary in West Virginia.

“Because of national interest in elections changes, the Department of Justice is even suing some states for election law changes that they have made,” Deak Kersey, general counsel for the Secretary of State, told members of the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary.

“So we want to avoid that for not only our voters, but also for our state in general. We want good election laws, not bad elections laws. So talking about it is the best way to start.”

The Secretary of State’s Office had presented a broad-ranging elections bill during the most recent legislative regular session, but it wound up being shelved. At the time, House Judiciary Chairman Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, described issues that needed further attention but without much more specificity.

One of the provisions that drew scrutiny from the public last year was an earlier conclusion to the early voting schedule. That was not among the proposals discussed today.

Kersey expressed hope that early communication about the proposals could smooth their legislative path.

“These are for discussion,” he said. “We want your input on these. Now, I think, is a great time to talk about it instead of in a committee hearing for the first time.”

Kersey outlined several proposals:

— A modified deadline to request absentee ballots

Kersey noted that this proposal drew controversy during a public hearing about last year’s elections bill.

But he said the proposal is a response to letters sent last year by the U.S. Postal Service warning of relatively tight timelines to process absentee ballots. Kersey said a change of administrations didn’t change those timetable estimates.

“Postal Service wrote a letter to all 50 states and said ‘We looked at your laws and we think you should consider a change.’ Their recommendation was 15 days, I think.”

Right now, he said, West Virginia provides a six-day deadline.

In this bill, the Secretary of State is proposing a request deadline of 12 days before the election, which would usually be a Friday.

“The postal service thinks it’s a good idea to back that deadline up,” he said.

— Governing bodies for elections counts 

This proposal was inspired by a Harpers Ferry local election that was contested for more than a year.

In that case, municipal officials ruled that four votes that were rejected on a technicality should not be counted. They were later overruled in the courts system, and the votes that wound up being counted turned the outcome of local races for some of the very officials who had been determining whether those votes should be counted or not.

Kersey said this proposal would shift responsibility for elections results from local authorities to the courts system.

“That’s problematic because of conflicts of interest, first of all,” Kersey said. He added that local elected leaders aren’t always well-versed in election laws and practices.

“We found this was a better idea to move it out of the local governing body,” Kersey said.

— Extending electronic absentee balloting to emergency responders

Right now, the option of electronic absentee balloting is open to the disabled or military who are overseas (or stationed in another state) and citizens who are living or traveling overseas during an election period.

But Kersey cited emergency responders who were called away to help with flood victims or with wildfires who fell between the cracks on being able to vote.

He said this proposal would open electronic absentee balloting as an option for emergency responders who get called away during electoral cycles.

“If you’re called away on emergency – it seems to make sense,” he said.

— Encouraging local elections and levies to be moved to county ballots

Kersey said this proposal is intended to move some off-cycle, local elections onto ballots when voters are more likely to be paying attention.

Participation is more likely if those issues are on the ballot during busy election cycles, he said.

“If you have something on the ballot, the intent was for people to actually vote on it,” Kersey said.

But he alluded to some resistence.

“This is not a popular bill. I’m aware of that,” he said.

Central oversight of private donations to local election resources

If a private donor wants to give money to support local elections efforts, Kersey said, that should be authorized by a central state source. The Secretary of State’s Office proposed the state Elections Commission, but he said the authorizing entity could be the Legislature itself.

He said this proposal was inspired by citizen concerns about Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg donating millions of dollars to help fund elections offices across the country. Some states have now moved to ban such donations.

That did not happen in West Virginia, Kersey said, but the issue did generate citizen concerns.

“Perception in elections a lot of times ends up being reality,” Kersey said.

Moving to consistency on the deadline to register to vote online

Kersey said this deadline is expressed differently in counties across the state.

This proposal is meant to make the deadline consistent.

Clarifying that West Virginia voting machines may not connect to the internet

Electronic voting machines in West Virginia do not connect to the internet, and Kersey proposes clarifying the law to ensure it stays that way. Doing so assures there’s no way to tamper with the machines or results from afar.

“We don’t want voting machines on the internet. Right now there’s not a single machine in West Virginia that touches the internet,” he said.

He said electronic voting machines that could connect to the internet could be rejected administratively. But Kersey suggested making sure that is reflected in the law. The adjustment is necessary, he said, because of an increased number of voting machine providers.

Relief on the motor voter fund

Kersey proposed eliminating a small charge at the Division of Motor Vehicles that was established to support elections efforts.

The Secretary of State’s Office can handle those expenses itself, he said, mostly with increasing financial support from the office’s business services operations.

“We just want to remove the fee. It’s something people don’t need to pay,” Kersey said.

“Smaller fees. Smaller government. Seemed like a good idea to us to propose to you.”





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