CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Tuesday is the final day in West Virginia to register to vote or change party registration for this year’s primary election.
The West Virginia primary election is set for May 12, and Secretary of State Kris Warner clarified the registration timeline.
“If you want to change your registration, your party registration, or register for the first time, you can before your courthouse closes [Tuesday],” Warner said during an appearance on MetroNews “Midday.” “Or if you go to govotewv.com, you can do that up until 11:59 [Tuesday] evening.”
Once Tuesday becomes Wednesday, voters become set in their party affiliations for the primary. Only those who have registered as Republican may vote on the Republican ballot in the primary, Warner said.
“Unaffiliated voters will not be able to poll a Republican ballot in the voting booth on May 12th during the early-voting process,” Warner explained. “Those unaffiliated voters, or what we used to call independents, can still vote for the nonpartisan races for school board and state supreme court justices, for example.”
A change to this year’s voting process is the requirement of photo IDs to cast ballots, Warner added. Photo identification takes many different forms, and Warner recited several.
“There’s a whole list of approved photo IDs,” Warner said. “Think of any government-issued photo ID like on a Driver’s License, even a Driver’s License from another state, a U.S. passport, a military ID with a photo, or a student ID with a photo from a West Virginia institution of higher education or a West Virginia high school, for example.”
There may be exceptions provided to people who cannot take photographs due to practicing in a recognized religious community, Warner said. For those without such exceptions, there’s no reason to panic if you don’t have a photo ID yet.
“I would encourage you to check with your county clerk or with our Secretary of State’s office,” Warner said. “We will print a photo ID for you so that you’re able to use that at election time.”
Warner said the govotewv.com website can be a great resource. He mentioned that polling locations, and applications for registered voters who want to assist as poll workers, are available online. In addition, prospective voters can do a sample ballot on the website.
“We have 992 different ballots in West Virginia this year for the primary,” Warner said. “That will allow you to see every race, see who all the candidates are, you can even hit print and then do you own research and take that printed sample ballot into the polling place with you. We encourage people to be educated and know the candidates that are going to be on your ballot.”
Warner also addressed concerns about ballot safety, citing the state’s proactivity as a major strength.
“Our elections are the safest and most secure in the country, but we’re ever vigilant,” Warner said. “We ask anyone that sees something that they might be concerned about to give us a call and let us know what they have seen. We run very safe and secure elections, we have what are referred to as paper ballots, in that the machines that we have in West Virginia are never connected to the internet. They are marking devices, they mark a paper ballot, and you have the opportunity to check and make sure that who you intended to vote for is who’re voting for before you put that paper ballot in the ballot box.”
There will be ten days of early voting from April 29 through May 9, including two Saturdays for those who can’t make it to the polls during the week.
The entire West Virginia Secretary of State’s office will be deployed to all 55 counties during Election Day and early voting, Warner said, to ensure ballot compliance and answer any questions people may have.
“We just encourage people to be educated going into the polling place, so use the tool that we have, our sample ballot lookup tool, and print out the ballot that is yours, that’s your home precinct, and don’t hesitate to call the county clerk or the Secretary of State’s office with any questions that you may have leading into either early voting or election night.”