Election Information from Secretary of State and Attorney General

On WAJR’s Talk of the Town West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner said all registered voters in the state qualify for an absentee ballot, but you must submit the application. Voters are required to declare which party ballot they are applying for, so they receive the correct one.

Warner says county clerks are dealing with an unprecedented amount of applications and preparations for the election.

“County clerks that you come in contact with are extremely busy right now and will be through the election,” Warner said,”Only 2 to 3 percent in typical elections vote absentee, in this election it could be 50 to 60 percent. So, just think about that mountain of mail coming in.”

Warner says once the ballot is received voters should fill it out and send it back to their county clerk to ensure prompt results on election day.

County clerks also have task of planning for voters who will cast a ballot in person in the COVID-19 era. Those plans consider personal protective equipment and in some cases things like face shields or plexiglass barriers between poll workers and voters.

“About 31 barrels of hand sanitizer throughout the state of West Virginia, we could have up to 1 million gloves, we could have 20,000 face masks, chalk and duct tape to mark six-foot intervals on the sidewalk outside the polling place,” Warner said,”All that level of detail is what the clerks are going through for their individual locations.”

Warner stresses this is a unique situation and it should not be confused with voting by mail that is legal in approximately five other states.

“State law requires people to have an application, just this particular situation everybody is eligible for the absentee ballot because of the medical excuse of the coronavirus,” Warner said,”So, we are using the mail, but we are not a vote by mail state.”

Read the entire WAJR article here

Attorney General Morrisey, Secretary of State, alerts voters to signs of absentee voter fraud

April 26, 2020
By Christina Kass, WVVA

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, in conjunction with Secretary of State Mac Warner, issued an alert to West Virginia voters Thursday, April 25th, concerning the increased potential of election fraud due to broad access to absentee ballots for the June 9 primary election.

The leaders’ concerns largely relate to the ability of fraudsters to steal or manipulate absentee ballots now that more people will use a mail-in, absentee ballot due to social distancing concerns driven by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Secretary Warner, each voter should generally receive a ballot within a week to 10 days of submitting his or her absentee application.

Otherwise, voters should contact their county clerk as such a delay may indicate someone might have stolen the ballot from the voter’s mailbox.

Fraudsters also may submit an absentee ballot application in the name of a recently deceased person and then steal the ballot from the mailbox upon delivery.

Other criminals may target senior voters, especially at nursing homes, senior living facilities or apartment complexes, by going door to door in convincing efforts to get the senior to vote in a specific manor.

Individuals wanting to manipulate a voter during the completion of an absentee ballot may offer to “assist” senior and/or handicapped voters by physically marking the ballot for them, while casting votes for the fraudster’s choice over that of the voter.

The Attorney General and Secretary of State recommended that no one should accept assistance in marking their ballot unless they know and completely trust the person offering the assistance.

Even then, the helper should mark the ballot in front of the voter and sign the affidavit on the absentee ballot envelope.

Read the entire WVVA article here