West Virginia Primary Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Primary: Incumbent Face-Offs, Redistricting And Party Switching

Redistricting in West Virginia has led to some House and Senate incumbents running against each other on May 10th.

Incumbent Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell, and Ric Griffith, D-Wayne, are colleagues and friends. Lovejoy, a third term delegate and Cabell County attorney, said this race is a bit troubling.

“It’s a bummer,” Lovejoy said. “The truth is, Rick’s a good friend of mine. He’s a good Democrat. He’s a good delegate. And it’s just unfortunate, but it is what it is.”

Griffith, who owns a Wayne County pharmacy, is completing his first term in the House. He said running against Lovejoy is disheartening.

“I care deeply about serving as does Chad,” Griffith said. “And so we’re just gonna have to face this and see what happens. But it’s an unfortunate circumstance.”

Both candidates were asked to explain some key issues they think need the West Virginia Legislature’s immediate attention. They said economic development with job creation and retention topped their lists.

Lovejoy expressed the importance of stewardship with all the federal funds becoming available.

“The federal monies from the infrastructure bill, the American rescue plan, there’s going to be a lot of decisions made as we go forward on how this money is going to be used in West Virginia,” Lovejoy said. “And a lot of that is going to be appropriated by the legislature. So I want to make sure that our area has a seat at the table.”

Griffith said tourism is driving much of the state’s economic development, but he said you can’t promote West Virginia without cleaning it up. He has a plan to clear littered, unsightly homes by offering incentives first, penalties second.

“I think we ought to have a fund that creates an ability to go to a poor person or just a negligent person’s home and say, okay, we will fine you,” Griffith said. “But you gotta clean this up. We’ll help you haul it off and if not, you will be fined.”

The entire 100 member House of Delegates is up for election. More than half the incumbents have no opposition in the May primary.

Half of the 34-member Senate is up for election. Republicans hold a 23-11 supermajority in that chamber. Several of the districts were realigned during redistricting, but the total number stayed the same.

A number of Senate primary races feature incumbent vs. incumbent, candidates switching political parties, candidates moving from house to senate and a former U.S attorney running for state senate.

They include:

District 1: Sen. Owens Brown, D-Ohio, and former Del. Randy Swartzmiller

District 3: Sen Mike Azinger, R-Wood and Del. John Kelly, R-Wood

District 7: Former U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart is running against Chad McCormick in the republican Primary.

District 9: Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, and current Del. and former Democrat Mick Bates, R-Raleigh;

District 13: Former Senate Democrat Mike Oliverio plans to seek office again, this time as a Republican and fellow Morgantown resident Barbara Evans Fleischauer, a longtime House Democrat. Both have primary opposition.

WVPB and the Secretary of State’s office have more information on the West Virginia Primary and casting your vote.

Judge Orders Candidate Removed From Primary Election

Updated on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at 5 p.m. Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Duke Bloom has ordered West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner to remove Republican state Senate candidate Andrea Kiessling from the ballot days before the May 10 Primary Election.

Updated on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at 5 p.m.

Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Duke Bloom has ordered West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner to remove Republican state Senate candidate Andrea Kiessling from the ballot days before the May 10 Primary Election.

In a complaint filed last month, it was claimed that Kiessling violated the constitutional requirement that she be a West Virginia resident for five years before the election.

After a hearing on Tuesday, Judge Duke Bloom asked Kiessling’s attorney, the secretary of state, and the attorney who filed the complaint to enter their responses. Those were received earlier today, and the judge had already ruled against Kiessling.

Bloom would not say when Kiessling had made West Virginia her residence, but said it was clear she did not meet the five year standard.

The judge ordered Warner to:

Withdraw the certificate of candidacy
Direct all election officials to disregard any votes Kiessling receives.
Post signs in 8th District voting locations that Kiessling is ineligible.

Warner’s office had urged the judge to wait until after the election but indicated it will comply with the order in a statement. “An emergency meeting of the State Election Commission will meet as early as Thursday afternoon or Friday to implement the order of the judge. We plan to comply with the judge’s orders in the counties that make up the 8th Senatorial District.”

Original Post:

The West Virginia Secretary of State says a judge should wait until after the primary election to rule in a candidate’s residency dispute.

Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Duke Bloom asked all parties to file briefs Wednesday on how they think the case should be decided after a hearing held Tuesday morning.

The complaint claims District 8 Republican Senate candidate Andrea Kiessling violated the constitutional requirement that she be a West Virginia resident for five years before the election.

The complainant’s attorney argued documentation proves Kiessling was a North Carolina resident during much of the required five years.

Kiessling’s attorney argued evidence shows the candidate maintained West Virginia residency.

Bloom asked that the Secretary of State’s office also offer an opinion.

That response said the 800 or so Republican voters that have already cast ballots as of Wednesday in District 8 must not be disenfranchised, that the complaint comes too late according to state code, and that Bloom should wait until after the election to make any decision.

State Senate Candidate Refutes Residency Violation Claims

A claim that a state Senate candidate did not meet residency requirements and should not be on the ballot made its way to a Kanawha County courtroom Tuesday.

A complaint filed by Kanawha County registered voter Alicia Stine claims Republican Senate District 8 primary candidate Andrea Kiessling violated the West Virginia requirement that candidates must live in the state five years prior to their election.

District 8 includes Roane and Clay counties, and parts of Kanawha, Putman and Jackson.

The residency charge was first raised last week on Twitter by a District 8 opponent, former Republican state Delegate Joshua Higginbotham.

In a virtual hearing, Kiessling testified her family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012 for a better business opportunity for her family. Attorney Anthony Majestro asked Kiessling about her home and car purchases, business dealings and tax returns. She told Majestro she filed state and federal tax returns form 2012 until 2020 in North Carolina.

Kiessling testified that North Carolina was never a permanent home, she had dual residency and she was always laying the groundwork to return to central West Virginia, which she did in 2020.

“We always planned to move back and return to West Virginia,” Kiessling testified. “That was always the intention. My husband and I saw North Carolina in our business opportunities there as a means to an end. We needed to put things in place in order to be able to return to West Virginia, which was always always the plan.”

She also testified that she voted in North Carolina during those years, unaware that only a state resident can legally vote.

“I didn’t necessarily have that thought attached to why and when I voted. I voted because I wanted to vote,’ Kiessling said.

In a separate interview conducted after the hearing, Kiessling told West Virginia Public Broadcasting her intentions and actions while in North Carolina exhibited dual state residency.

“I took my pet to the vet, my local vet, in West Virginia, I continued to go to my dentist, and my children saw doctors in West Virginia,” Kiessling said. “I’m a shareholder at local businesses in West Virginia, I was very much involved in my family’s business. The list goes on. I remained a member of my church, all during the time I was in North Carolina. So I very much remained very well connected to West Virginia, and again, split my time between the states where I was running and operating businesses in and West Virginia.”

Kiesslnig said she and her campaign team knew the residency requirements before she decided to run for office, and felt any problems with driver licenses or voter registration were technicalities

“When I moved to North Carolina in 2012, for the businesses that we were pursuingI had to update my driver’s license,” Kiessling said. “And therefore my voter registration which was attached to the updating of my driver’s license, since that point in 2012. I have not updated my driver’s license or therefore my voter registration. I am a busy mom.”

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Duke Bloom asked for briefs of conclusions and relief from both parties – and from the Secretary of State’s office. He’s expected to make a ruling by the end of the week.

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.

May 10, 1960: Kennedy Wins the West Virginia Primary

On May 10, 1960, John F. Kennedy defeated Hubert Humphrey in the most important presidential primary ever held in West Virginia. Kennedy, a Catholic, had won the Wisconsin Democratic primary a month earlier. However, some attributed his success to Wisconsin’s relatively large percentage of Catholics.

West Virginia was an overwhelmingly Protestant state, and there were doubts whether JFK could win here. And if he couldn’t win enough Protestant votes in a Democratic primary, there were serious doubts he could win enough support to beat Republican Richard Nixon in the general election.

The West Virginia primary was hard-fought on the airwaves and on the ground. Kennedy, Humphrey, and their supporters campaigned for months. Kennedy-family money poured into West Virginia in record amounts. Foreshadowing today’s expensive media campaigns, the underfunded Humphrey later compared his challenge against JFK to “an independent merchant running against a chain store.”

Kennedy won the West Virginia primary by more than 20 points, and Humphrey dropped out of the race. Kennedy went on to win the Democratic nomination and carry West Virginia in the general election. He always credited the Mountain State for making him president.

About 300 Uncounted Votes in Kanawha's Unofficials Results

Kanawha County officials say about 300 votes were not included in the county’s unofficial election results last week.

Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick tells the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the uncounted votes were from people who voted early and were from the Dunbar area.

She says the incident was an accident, and the result of a card being left in one of the vote-counting machines in the voter registration office on May 10.

The vote totals up until this point have been considered “unofficial.”

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper says he has seen no similar incidents in his 20 years as county commissioner.

McCormick says no races were close enough to be affected by the mistake.