Absentee Ballots Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Probation For W.Va. Mail Carrier In Absentee Ballot Case

A West Virginia postal carrier who pleaded guilty to altering mail-in requests for absentee voter ballots was sentenced to five years’ probation Monday.

Thomas Cooper was charged in May 2020 after eight mail-in requests for absentee voter ballots had their party affiliations altered. He pleaded guilty last July.

Cooper, 48, of Dry Fork, held a postal contract to pick up mail in the three towns in which the voters live and delivered the forms in April 2020 to the Pendleton County clerk, according to a federal affidavit.

An investigation by the secretary of state’s office found five of the ballot requests were changed from Democrat to Republican with a black ink pen, the affidavit said.

Bennie Cogar, a state attorney general’s office investigator who conducted the probe on behalf of the secretary of state’s office, said in the affidavit that the Pendleton County clerk called some of the voters after receiving the requests because she knew they were not Republicans. The clerk then contacted the secretary of state’s office to report the alterations.

On the other three requests, the voters’ party was not changed. However, in addition to the “Republican” box originally checked in blue ink, the word “Republican” was later circled in black ink, the affidavit said.

Cooper admitted in an interview with Cogar and a postal inspector that he changed some of the requests he picked up from the Onega post office from Democrat to Republican.

According to the affidavit, when he was then asked about the other requests, Cooper said, “I’m not saying no,” but if the requests were picked up along his postal route, “I would take the blame.” Cooper was then asked if he was “just being silly” and he replied he did it “as a joke” and that he didn’t know those voters.

Cooper was sentenced in federal court in Elkins for attempted election fraud and injury to the mail.

State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Cooper’s conviction and sentencing “should serve as a strong warning to anyone else who feels tempted to commit election fraud.”

Absentee ballot rules were relaxed last year to make voting easier and safer during the coronavirus pandemic. Absentee ballot applications were mailed to all registered voters in West Virginia to encourage mail-in voting for the June 2020 primary election. For the November general election, all state voters were allowed to fill out an absentee ballot application online.

Early Voting, Returned Absentee Ballots Signal Potentially Record-Breaking Numbers For West Virginia

More than 389,000 West Virginians have cast ballots ahead of Tuesday’s general election. That number accounts for absentee and early voting and a turnout so far of just under 31 percent.

State elections officials said Monday that 253,243 West Virginians cast a ballot during the 10-day early in-person voting period that ended Saturday.

Additionally, 136,005 West Virginians have cast an absentee ballot. The West Virginia Secretary of State’s office says nearly 89 percent of requested absentee ballots have so far been returned.

“If you use [the total number of votes cast so far] against the 2016 general election, it’s half — or, maybe, slightly over half. So I think we’re on pace for perhaps a record-setting year,” Warner said. “And I’m just thrilled with everything — from the clerks to the poll workers to the voters themselves.”

Registered Republicans turned out the most for early, in-person voting — posting 111,982 ballots. Registered Democrats cast 85,107 early vos and other party — or no-party affiliation — voters made up the remaining 56,154 early ballots.

In terms of returned absentee ballots, registered Democrats have so far cast 76,296 votes. Registered Republicans have returned 34,039 absentee ballots. Other and no-party voters have cast 25,670 absentee ballots to date.

With those totals, registered Democrats have cast the most ballots overall one day ahead of Election Day.

“I think the bases are energized on both sides and that’s what’s driving the enthusiasm,” Warner said. “And then the accessibility of the polls makes it easy for people to vote. As you know, with COVID-19, everybody’s eligible to vote absentee.”

Warner chalks the high absentee numbers up to an online portal used to request a ballot.

But absentee ballot numbers are down from the primary, in which roughly 225,000 voters cast an absentee ballot — nearly half of the total voter turnout. The online system marked a change from the procedures used during the primary, in which all registered voters were mailed an application for an absentee ballot.

Still yet, Warner said he is pleased with the process for the general election.

“There’s an awful lot of work that’s going on behind the scenes,” Warner said. “To the voters, it’s almost ‘no news is good news.’ If the voters aren’t hearing about it, that means we’re all doing our jobs.”

Outstanding absentee ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, Nov. 3 and received by the start of canvass on Nov. 9 to be counted.

On Election Day, polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

With Eyes On The Presidential Race, West Virginia Early Polling Locations See Significant Turnout On First Day

Early voting is now underway in West Virginia and many voters are taking to the polls to avoid potential crowds on Election Day. Polling places opened as tens of thousands of West Virginians have already cast an absentee ballot.

Each of the state’s 55 counties have at least one early-voting location that will be open during normal business hours but will be closed on Sunday. Times that the locations will be open will vary, depending on the county and location.

Secretary of State Mac Warner said the first day of early voting has been a success. He said some polling locations across the state are reporting lines that he attributes to precautions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

“[There’s] a few reports of lines. But none of them seem to be excessively long lines or long waits,” Warner said. “I think the social distancing is making the lines appear to be longer than what they actually are.”

The line to vote in Martinsburg right now on this first day of #EarlyVoting in West Virginia. pic.twitter.com/eMmijhv87Q

— Giles Snyder (@GilesSnyder) October 21, 2020

Warner, who spoke to West Virginia Public Broadcasting while on a visit to McDowell County, said poll workers have been equipped with personal protective equipment to ensure their safety and that of voters who come through. He said that while absentee voting numbers are down from the state’s June primary, it was expected.

“I think people are more comfortable with wearing masks and being out now we’re getting accustomed to living with COVID-19. And so people are more likely to go vote in person than they may have been during the primary,” Warner said. “I’ve talked to some other states and they are also experiencing the same thing we are — that their numbers for absentee ballot requests are just about half of what they were in the primary. So, I think we’re right there in the middle of the pack with regards to what other states are experiencing.”

Voters in Monongalia County made their way through the line Wednesday at the old Mountaineer Mall in Morgantown off Greenbag Road. Kathryn Austin, who said she works at a hospital in Morgantown, showed up at the polls with her daughter so they could both cast their ballots.

Austin mentioned a broad range of reasons that motivated her to come to the polls.

“The government, the economy,” she said. “I’m trying not to say which way I leaned, but the world is in a mess right now.”

Austin cited the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and protests over racial injustice as motivating her to come out to the polls. Her daughter, Brandy, agreed.

“I tried to vote the best way that I could for public figures that are going to do what they can for us — not cave to the pressure that they’re getting from upper government, not cave to the pressure they’re getting from companies — just [do what’s] best for us,” Brandy Austin said. “Because I, personally, think the way they’ve handled this COVID thing, there’s a few things I think the government could have done differently to help us today.”

Debbie Frick, a retired police officer, came out Wednesday to cast her vote in support of President Donald Trump. She thinks the news media has slighted Trump and favored Biden in the lead-up to the election.

“I think we’re better off than what we were four years ago and I don’t think that he had any control over the COVID virus, the hurricanes or the wildfires,” Frick said. “I think he’s done great on immigration. And I’m better off today than I was four years ago.”

While Trump won West Virginia by a 42 percentage points in 2016 and remains largely popular in the state, election forecasters predict that margin is likely not to be as great in 2020.

Voters like Andrew Barnes said the president and the Republican-led U.S. Senate have failed in their response to the coronavirus pandemic and other big issues facing the nation.

“I think they’ve handled it all extremely poorly and don’t seem very concerned about trying to create unity when we’re suffering through one of the worst crises in our country’s history in the last hundred years,” Barnes said.

Because of that, Barnes said he cast a vote for Biden in the presidential election. However, he said he did so believing the Democrats could have put up a stronger candidate.

“Obviously, the vote is more against somebody then for somebody in this case,” he said about voting for Biden. “But, you know, that’s just a half step in the right direction. It’s gonna be up to the people next year to make sure he listens to us and not to what’s going on with the insiders in D.C. or Wall Street.”

Barnes also expressed support for statehouse incumbents from the Monongalia County delegation.

While many of the voters turned out to vote at the former Mountaineer Mall did so to avoid crowds on Election Day, some said they remain skeptical of the absentee voting process.

“I talked to someone this morning where they’ve got multiple mail-in ballot ballots. Now, I’ve talked to other people that have been fine,” Kathryn Austin said. “I just came here to do it myself and I know I did it.”

Barnes also expressed some concerns over the absentee voting process. While he mailed in a ballot for the state’s June primary, he said he usually votes early and in-person like he did Wednesday.

“I’m not as comfortable with the [absentee] process. You know, there’s a lot of things that could go wrong with a ballot,” Barnes said. “I guess if you didn’t sign the right spot — or a lot of uncertainty with that. So coming in and voting early is a good way to avoid long lines and any uncertainty that comes with that.”

While concerns over absentee ballots persist for some voters, tens of thousands of West Virginians have already mailed in or dropped off a ballot at the county clerk’s office.

As of Wednesday morning, the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office reported 95,844 absentee ballots have been returned. County clerks across the state reported 139,954 ballots have been requested so far.

While high numbers of absentee ballots are expected to delay results beyond election night, Warner said the more quickly absentee ballots are returned — and the more voters take to the polls early — the more likely the state is to see confident results on election night.

“Whether you’re voting absentee or whether you’re early voting, the early votes are in the machines where it’s ready to be tabulated as of the close of the election on Nov. 3,” Warner said. “The more that people vote right now, the earlier we will have those election night results.”

Voters can request an absentee ballot through Wednesday, Oct. 28. Early voting ends Saturday, Oct. 31.

Absentee ballots must be returned in person to clerks by the day before the election or postmarked by Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Warner: More Than 22,000 Absentee Ballots Requested In First Week

State elections officials say more than 22,000 West Virginians have so far requested absentee ballots for November’s general election.

In a Tuesday news release, Secretary of State Mac Warner said that more than 15,000 voters have used an online portal launched last week to request an absentee ballot. He said more than 7,348 additional ballots were requested by mail or in person at a county clerk’s office.

“We are pleased with the large interest in the new online portal,” Warner said. “Voters wanting to cast their ballot absentee now have a secure opportunity to request their ballot online, which increases efficiency and reduces potential delays presented by paper applications.”

All registered voters are able to use concerns over the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to request an absentee ballot, which are expected to start going in the mail to voters on Sept. 18.

Mail-in and absentee voting have become highly politicized issues in recent months, with President Donald Trump saying mail-in voting could lead to fraud and turn into a catastrophe. Elections experts say those claims are without merit.

Warner’s online absentee ballot application portal is a change in the process from the state’s last election. For West Virginia’s June primary, all registered voters were automatically mailed an application for an absentee ballot. Roughly half of all ballots cast in the 2020 primary were absentee.

The decision to change the process has been criticized by voting rights groups as well as Democrat Natalie Tennant, who is challenging Warner for the office on the November ticket.

Voting Rights Groups Urge Warner To Keep West Virginia’s Absentee Voting Consistent With Primary

Just days after Secretary of State Mac Warner announced a voting plan for West Virginia’s November election, a coalition of voting rights groups is calling for wider access to an application for absentee ballots.

On Monday, Warner announced that all West Virginians could use the ongoing pandemic as a reason to vote absentee. He said voters will be able to access an application for a ballot through an online portal — but that they can also write, call or fax a county clerk for an application.

But the plan for the general election differs from what was used in the state’s primary that was held last month. For West Virginia’s June 9 primary, all registered voters were automatically mailed an absentee ballot application.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, more than 262,000 absentee ballots were requested for the primary. Of those, nearly 225,000 were returned — making half of all ballots cast in the primary absentee.

Warner told West Virginia Public Broadcasting the new absentee ballot application process would eliminate more hands on each application, which ultimately decreases opportunities for voter fraud. However, most election security experts say voter fraud — including incidents that involve mail-in voting — is extremely rare.

Warner said the absentee application process for the general election will improve upon the system used in the primary.

But in a letter dated Wednesday, a coalition of voting rights groups are calling on Warner and other election officials to restore the absentee ballot application policy used in the primary.

The 11-group coalition includes West Virginians for Clean Elections, the state chapter of the ACLU, the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign, the West Virginia AFL-CIO and the state chapter of the League of Women Voters, among others.

The coalition cites concerns over ballot access during the pandemic, particularly for those who are elderly or who lack internet access.

“We understand that voters will have an online option for requesting absentee ballots for the November election, and that this option can help reduce opportunities for human errors and increase efficiency in the request process,” the coalition wrote in the letter. “While this is a welcome option, it will not help many older West Virginians or those without internet access. Mailing ballot applications to voters will keep the process consistent with the primary and create less confusion for voters.”

Various members of the coalition commented on the effort in a statement that was sent to news media along with a copy of the letter.

“We cannot allow the right to safely vote become a polarizing issue,” WV Citizens for Clean Elections coordinator Julie Archer said in the release. “We can protect West Virginia voters and protect the vote during this pandemic. And we must.”

Democrat Natalie Tennant — who is running against Warner to regain the post of Secretary of State — has also said Warner’s altered absentee voting process is confusing and limits access to the polls.

Absentee Voting Process Tweak Renews Debate In Secretary Of State Race

All registered voters in West Virginia will be able to use the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as a reason to get an absentee ballot for the November general election. But a tweak in the process of how voters can access those applications — and, thus, an absentee ballot — has revived a debate over voting during the pandemic in the race for West Virginia’s Secretary of State.

Secretary of State Mac Warner announced Monday that all registered voters can use concerns over the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to vote absentee. For the Nov. 3 general election, Warner says voters will be able to access that application through an online portal beginning Aug. 11. Voters will also have the option to contact their county clerks and request a ballot by mail, phone or fax, according to a news release from the Secretary of State’s office.

The announcement highlights slight — but potentially impactful — changes in West Virginia’s pandemic voting process. Just last week, Warner’s office released an “after action review” on the state’s primary election, in which nearly half of ballots cast were done so absentee.

In the lead up to the state’s June 9 primary election — which was delayed from its original date of May 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic — county clerks mailed applications for absentee ballots to all registered voters. Warner says the newly announced process will eliminate opportunities for fraud.

“We’re going to improve that. We’re going to let people use a portal where they can apply automatically and that moves about half of the human touches and that’s where the errors can occur,” Warner told West Virginia Public Broadcasting by phone Monday evening.

Warner opposes a universal vote-by-mail system for the state, but says he is not opposed to using the mail to vote absentee. The difference, he says, is voters taking the step to complete an application for an absentee ballot.

“We learned there’s a lot of problems with the mail system. Nothing against the mail carriers in the post office — they do a wonderful job. In fact, they advertise you know, 96 percent delivery on time rate, so forth — and in the usual world that may be fine,” Warner said. “But in the election world, you just can’t have 4 percent or any number of ballots not arriving by election day or the day after with the postmarks and so forth.”

Of the 1.2 million registered voters, 262,503 ballots were requested in the June primary. Of those requested ballots, 224,777 were returned, according to data from the Secretary of State’s office.

“If we had sent ballots out to all those people, you would have had 800,000 ballots out there. Think of the opportunities for fraud — not to mention the waste and abuse that occurs in that,” he said. “So I am not a proponent of vote by mail.”

But with Warner up for re-election in November, former Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, a Democrat, said any change in the process between the primary and the general election is unnecessary and will confuse voters.

“Why would you change a good thing? Why wouldn’t you build off of something positive? You can’t tell me that this is a good thing. When voters have to learn something new again,” Tennant said.

Tennant is challenging Warner on the November ballot to regain the position as the state’s top election official and business administrator. She argues that — given the process during the primary — many voters may be anticipating an absentee ballot application to automatically come to them.

“Changing this right in the middle is changing the rules of the game. It is making West Virginia take a step backward. It’s confusing, and it makes it harder to vote,” she said.

Warner says Tennant’s claim has yet to show any real effect on voter turnout.

“That’s a manufactured problem that doesn’t exist. We are still three — a little bit more than three months — away from the general election,” he said. “Look back at the primary, we got started about two months out making these decisions and so forth. So we’ve got a month more.”

Mail-in absentee ballots have become a flashpoint for political debate in the era of the coronavirus with Democrats pushing for wider access and Republicans arguing the option leads to fraud. In West Virginia, a task force — which included Warner and the state’s two federal prosecutors — has landed a guilty plea on an indictment of mail fraud stemming from a postal worker tampering with eight absentee ballot applications ahead of the June primary.

However, election security experts agree that fraud from mail-in voting is extremely rare. According to MIT political science professor Charles Stewart, fraud is so infrequent that it’s tremendously unlikely to shift the outcome of an election.

“It’s going to be like a drop of food dye in an Olympic swimming pool,” Stewart said by phone Tuesday. “And whether it’s a 50-meter pool or a 25-meter pool, it’s still going to be just a really small amount. And that’s the evidence.”

Stewart said voting by mail during the pandemic has forced many Republican election officials to enact policies that they would likely not have considered under other circumstances.

“What happened during the primary was obviously an emergency. We see a lot of officials — and I would say, a significant number of Republicans such as Mac Warner — undertaking some political risk to themselves, undertaking actions that that many Republicans normally would not take. For instance, you know, mailing the application to everybody.”

But with the pandemic ongoing for some time and voters more used to going out in public and taking care of other business, Stewart believes that more people will actually show up to the polls rather than make use of mail-in absentee ballots in November.

“It’s also going to be the case there’s more what’s called low-propensity voters — inexperienced voters who are not going to know how to or it’s going to be difficult for them to learn how to request the ballot — or maybe to plan far enough ahead of time to get the ballot in time for it to be returned on time,” Stewart said. “So those voters are also going to be more likely to vote in person.”

With two experienced elections officials on the ballot in November, Stewart notes that issues related to mail-in ballots take on a new context. He says the switch from policies before the pandemic — to changes in the primary process and, now, the general — are colored by politics.

“The point that I’m just trying to make is that, as in much of politics, there is no right answer. There are values that are being traded off in a policy decision like this — as in all policy decisions,” Stewart said.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting has scheduled a virtual debate for the Secretary of State’s race between Warner and Tennant to take place in early September. The event will air on WVPB television stations at a later date.