Voter Registration Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Tuesday Last Day To Register To Vote For Primaries

April 23 is the last day for West Virginia residents to register to vote in the state’s primary election May 14. Early voting will be held in person from May 1 to May 11.

April 23 is the last day for residents to register to vote in West Virginia’s primary election.

The primary election will be held May 14, with in-person early voting from May 1 to May 11.

West Virginia residents who live overseas, are deployed abroad for military service or have certain disabilities may be eligible to receive an absentee mail-in ballot.

Mail-in ballots must be requested by May 8, six days before the primary election. They must be mailed and postmarked by May 14, and received by election officials by May 19 in order to count.

To preview your primary ballot and review the candidates and measures you can vote for, visit the West Virginia Secretary of State’s sample ballot lookup tool.

For more information on registering to vote in West Virginia, visit the secretary of state’s website.

For more information on absentee voting in West Virginia, visit GoVoteWv.com, which is published through the secretary of state’s office.

100,000th Student Registers At Voter Registration Drive

State and local officials helped register students to vote today at Capital High School. Rico Franquez was the 100,000 high school student to register to vote since Secretary of State Mac Warner took office in 2017.

State and local officials helped register students to vote today at Capital High School. Rico Franquez was the 100,000th high school student to register to vote since Secretary of State Mac Warner took office in 2017.

Warner, Elections Divisions Director Brittany Westfall, and County Clerk Vera McCormick talked to students about the importance of civic engagement.

The event also celebrated U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph who worked to pass the 26th Amendment. Randolph was a West Virginia native and represented the state from 1958 to 1985. Lee Dean impersonated the late senator during the presentation. He said Randolph believed that if U.S. citizens under the age of 21 were old enough to fight then they should be old enough to vote.

“Old enough for Bullets, Old enough for Ballots slogan really resonated with young people at the time and I believe it still does,” Dean said.

Warner said that West Virginia has a legacy of getting young people involved in politics. He named Saira Blair the youngest legislator ever elected, and Caleb Hanna as the youngest African American elected to office.

“When people hear about other 18 and19 year olds getting elected to office, they’re like, well, I could do that, too. And that’s the importance of coming out and telling that story and making them feel part of this proud legacy that West Virginia has,” Warner said.

Warner said that one of the biggest challenges that the state faces is young people moving away.

“We spend all this time and effort educating them. And then when they take off to Charlotte, or Denver or somewhere, we lose that talent,” Warner said. “And so we want to keep them here. And this voter registration drive gives them that opportunity to feel part of the process.”

He said staying engaged with what is happening in the student’s community ties them to those communities.

Any West Virginia high school that registers at least 85 percent of their eligible students to vote will receive the Jennings Randolph Award for Civic Engagement.

Voter Registration Reminder Postcards Sent To State’s Voters

Nearly 16,000 West Virginia voters will soon receive a postcard from the Secretary of State’s office to confirm their voter registration.

When voters update their address at other agencies or move to a different state, that information does not automatically update or cancel a voter’s old registration.

If a voter receives a postcard at their current address, no action is required.

If a voter does not respond, no action will be taken on their voter registration status. The postcard is merely a reminder, participation is voluntary, and it will not affect the voters’ ability to vote in upcoming elections.

Voters that receive a reminder, and have moved to another address or state, can update or cancel their voter registration by filling out the postcard and mailing it back to their county clerk using the return address printed on the card.

Existing registrations can also be updated at any time by visiting GoVoteWV.com or the QR code included on the postcard.

Voter Registration Deadline Is April 19

The deadline to register to vote, or update a current voter registration, for the upcoming May 10 Primary Election is April 19.

Voters who have moved to a different address, changed their name, or wish to change their political party should update their registration.

Eligible citizens can register to vote in one of three ways:

Online atGoVoteWV.com using a valid West Virginia driver’s license or state-issued ID number;
Mailing a paper application to their county clerk (application form available atGoVoteWV.com or calling their county clerk to have one provided); or
In-person registration including at the public offices of the county clerk, Secretary of State, Division of Motor Vehicles, public assistance offices, agencies serving people with disabilities, and military recruiting agencies.

Mailed registrations must be received or postmarked by no later than April 19.
For those who wish to register in person, check the local office’s business hours. Those registering online must register by the close of business of their county clerk’s office.

Voters can find their voting districts and polling places for the May 10 Primary Election by using the address lookup tool on the WV Interactive Map for Voting Precincts & Districts atGoVoteWV.com.

Redistricting Voters And Computer Glitches Challenge Clerks Before W.Va. Primary

West Virginia’s 55 county clerks continue to face district mapping and computer input challenges as they prepare for the upcoming primary election.

On March 8, the Secretary of State’s office calculated that 72 percent of all West Virginia voters had been redistricted into the correct precinct. As of March 24, that number has grown to 87 percent.

Secretary of State’s office General Counsel Deak Kersey said delayed census population numbers slowed the process of setting new voting district boundaries.

“The counties are really taking it to task right now,” Kersey said. “Getting those voters moved, even designing the street segments, which is a term of art that the counties have to use for describing portions of streets in different precincts or districts, and redrawing those lines for precincts and magisterial districts is the nitty gritty of what’s involved.”

Kersey said technical glitches from a new statewide voter registration system have created precinct mapping hurdles.

“The 13 remaining percent are mostly large counties that have complicated technical hurdles to hop over, where they have multiple street segments in a precinct or a district that’s been split up,” Kersey said. “It takes a manual review. It takes a human being in the clerk’s office to look at a map, compare it with the voter registration system record, and make sure that the right district numbers and the right precinct numbers match up, and then assign that. So it just takes a long time.”

But Kersey says there are back ups to ensure every registered voter gets to vote.

“We still have the data. And so we can do everything we need to do to get ready for an election outside the system if we have to,” Kersey said. That’s not what we want to do. And that’s not what the counties want to do. But the point is the election will go off without a hitch.”

Clerks are scheduled to begin mailing out requested absentee ballots this Friday. Kersey said those mailings ‘absolutely’ should go off without a hitch. Counties have until April 27 for early voting. The West Virginia Primary is May 10.

GOP Gains Registered Voters In W.Va., Still Lags Behind Dems

Registered Republican voters in West Virginia have increased since Donald Trump won office but still lags behind Democrats entering a presidential election year, according to voter registration figures from the secretary of state’s office.

Overall registration numbers in West Virginia have fallen as residents continue to leave the state and elections officials removed invalid registrations, The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register reported.

There were 488,148 registered Democrats in the state at the end of December, a 14.5 percent drop since November 2016. Meanwhile, there was a 3.2 percent increase in registered Republicans to 411,872 since the election of Trump, according to Secretary of State figures.

There also were 278,851 registered voters without a party affiliation, a 4.4 percent jump from the 2016 election.

In 2016, despite registered Democrats far outnumbering Republicans in West Virginia, the state gave Trump his largest margin of victory — 42 percentage points.

But the state has lost 83,119 registered Democrats since then and there are 32,393 fewer Democrats registered in the past year. GOP registrations have increased by 13,325 since Trump’s election and by 5,540 over the past year.

The overall number of registered voters in West Virginia was 1.225 million at the end of December, down 4 percent from 1.277 million in November 2016.

West Virginia’s population has fallen for seven straight years. The state lost more than 12,000 people from 2018 to 2019.