West Virginia Statutes § 3-2-25 Systematic purging program for removal of ineligible voters from active voter registration files; comparison of data records; confirmation notices; public inspection list

Statute Text

(a) The systematic purging program provided in this section shall begin no earlier than October 1 of each odd-numbered year and shall be completed no later than February 1 of the following year. The clerk of the county commission shall transmit or mail to the Secretary of State a certification that the systematic purging program has been completed and all voters identified as no longer eligible to vote have been canceled in the statewide voter registration database in accordance with the law no later than February 15 in the year in which the purging program is completed.

(b) The Secretary of State shall provide for the comparison of data records of all counties. The Secretary of State shall, based on the comparison, prepare a list for each county which shall include the voter registration record for each voter shown on that county's list who appears to have registered or to have updated a voter registration in another county at a subsequent date. The resulting lists shall be returned to the appropriate county and the clerk of the county commission shall proceed with the confirmation procedure for those voters as prescribed in section twenty-six of this article.

(c) The Secretary of State may provide for the comparison of data records of counties with the data records of the Division of Motor Vehicles, the registrar of vital statistics and with the data records of any other state agency which maintains records of residents of the state, if the procedure is practical and the agency agrees to participate. Any resulting information regarding potentially ineligible voters shall be returned to the appropriate county and the clerk of the county commission shall proceed with the confirmation procedure as prescribed in section twenty-six of this article.

(d) The records of all voters not identified pursuant to the procedures set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of this section shall be combined for comparison with United States Postal Service change of address information, as described in section 8(c)(A) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq. ). The Secretary of State shall contract with an authorized vendor of the United States Postal Service to perform the comparison. The cost of the change of address comparison procedure shall be paid for from the combined voter registration and licensing fund established in section twelve of this article and the cost of the confirmation notices, labels and postage shall be paid for by the counties.

(e) The Secretary of State shall return to each county the identified matches of the county voter registration records and the postal service change of address records.

(1) When the change of address information indicates the voter has moved to a new address within the county, the clerk of the county commission shall enter the new address on the voter record and assign the proper precinct.

(2) The clerk of the county commission shall then mail to each voter who appears to have moved from the residence address shown on the registration records a confirmation notice pursuant to section twenty-six of this article and of section 8(d)(2) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq. ). The notice shall be mailed, no later than December 31, to the new address provided by the postal service records or to the old address if a new address is not available.

(f) The clerk of the county commission shall indicate in the statewide voter registration database the name and address of each voter to whom a confirmation notice was mailed and the date on which the notice was mailed.

(g) Upon receipt of any response or returned mailing sent pursuant to the provisions of subsection (e) of this section, the clerk shall immediately enter the date and type of response received in the statewide voter registration database and shall then proceed in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-six of this article.

(h) For purposes of complying with the record keeping and public inspection requirements of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq. ), and with the provisions of section twenty-seven of this article, the public inspection lists shall be maintained either in printed form kept in a binder prepared for such purpose and available for public inspection during regular business hours at the office of the clerk of the county commission or in read-only data format available for public inspection on computer terminals set aside and available for regular use by the general public. Information concerning whether or not each person has responded to the notice shall be entered into the statewide voter registration database upon receipt and shall be available for public inspection as of the date the information is received.

(i) Any voter to whom a confirmation notice was mailed pursuant to the provisions of subsection (e) of this section who fails to respond to the notice or to update his or her voter registration address by February 1 immediately following the completion of the program, shall be designated inactive in the statewide voter registration database. Any voter designated inactive shall be required to affirm his or her current residence address, on a form prescribed by the Secretary of State, upon appearing at the polls to vote.

(j) In addition to the preceding purging procedures, all counties using the change of address information of the United States Postal Service shall also, once each four years during the period established for systematic purging in the year following a presidential election year, conduct the same procedure by mailing a confirmation notice to those persons not identified as potentially ineligible through the change of address comparison procedure but who have not updated their voter registration records and have not voted in any election during the preceding four calendar years. The purpose of this additional systematic confirmation procedure shall be to identify those voters who may have moved without filing a forwarding address, moved with a forwarding address under another name, died in a another county or state so that the certificate of death was not returned to the clerk of the county commission, or who otherwise have become ineligible.

History

Amended by 2013 Acts, ch. 68 ( SB 535 ) , eff. 7/12/2013 .

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