COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 261
(By Senator Jenkins)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported March 18, 2009.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §3-1-30 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to requiring party executive
committees to submit their list of nominees to serve as
election officials no later than the seventieth day before the
election.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §3-1-30 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS.
§3-1-30. Nomination and appointment of election officials and
alternates; notice of appointment; appointment to
fill vacancies in election boards.
(a) For any primary, general or special election held
throughout a county, poll clerks and election commissioners may be
nominated as follows:
(1) The county executive committee for each of the two major political parties may, by a majority vote of the committee at a
duly called meeting, nominate one qualified person for each team of
poll clerks and one qualified person for each team of election
commissioners to be appointed for the election;
(2) The appointing body shall select one qualified person as
the additional election commissioner for each board of election
officials;
(3) Each county executive committee shall also nominate
qualified persons as alternates for at least ten percent of the
poll clerks and election commissioners to be appointed in the
county and is authorized to nominate as many qualified persons as
alternates as there are precincts in the county to be called upon
to serve in the event any of the persons originally appointed fail
to accept appointment or fail to appear for the required training
or for the preparation or execution of their duties;
(4) When an executive committee nominates qualified persons as
poll clerks, election commissioners or alternates, the committee,
or its chairman or secretary on its behalf, shall file in writing
with the appointing body, no later than the
fifty-sixth seventieth
day before the election, a list of those persons nominated and the
positions for which they are designated.
(b) For any municipal primary, general or special election,
the poll clerks and election commissioners may be nominated as
follows:
(1) In municipalities which have municipal executive
committees for the two major political parties in the municipality, each committee may nominate election officials in the manner
provided for the nomination of election officials by county
executive committees in subsection (a) of this section;
(2) In municipalities which do not have executive committees,
the governing body shall provide by ordinance for a method of
nominating election officials or shall nominate as many eligible
persons as are required, giving due consideration to any
recommendations made by voters of the municipality or by candidates
on the ballot.
(c) The governing body responsible for appointing election
officials is:
(1) The county commission for any primary, general or special
election ordered by the county commission and any joint county and
municipal election;
(2) The board of education for any special election ordered by
the board of education conducted apart from any other election;
(3) The municipal governing body for any primary, general or
special municipal election ordered by the governing body.
(d) The qualifications for persons nominated to serve as
election officials may be confirmed prior to appointment by the
clerk of the county commission for any election ordered by the
county commission or for any joint county and municipal election
and by the official recorder of the municipality for a municipal
election.
(e) The appropriate governing body shall appoint the election
officials for each designated election board no later than the forty-ninth day before the election as follows:
(1) Those eligible persons whose nominations for poll clerk
and election commissioner were timely filed by the executive
committees and those additional persons selected to serve as an
election commissioner are to be appointed;
(2) The governing body shall fill any positions for which no
nominations were filed.
(f) At the same time as the appointment of election officials
or at a subsequent meeting the governing body shall appoint persons
as alternates.
Provided, That However, no alternate may be
eligible for compensation for election training unless the
alternate is subsequently appointed as an election official or is
instructed to attend and actually attends training as an alternate
and is available to serve on election day. Alternates shall be
appointed and serve as follows:
(1) Those alternates nominated by the executive committees
shall be appointed;
(2) The governing body may appoint additional alternates who
may be called upon to fill vacancies after all alternates
designated by the executive committees have been assigned, have
declined to serve or have failed to attend training; and
(3) The governing body may determine the number of persons who
may be instructed to attend training as alternates.
(g) The clerk of the county commission shall appoint qualified
persons to fill all vacancies existing after all previously
appointed alternates have been assigned, have declined to serve or have failed to attend training.
(h) Within seven days following appointment, the clerk of the
county commission shall notify, by first-class mail, all election
commissioners, poll clerks and alternates of the fact of their
appointment and include with the notice a response notice form for
the appointed person to return indicating whether or not he or she
agrees to serve in the specified capacity in the election.
(I) The position of any person notified of appointment who
fails to return the response notice or otherwise confirm to the
clerk of the county commission his or her agreement to serve within
fourteen days following the date of appointment is considered
vacant and the clerk shall proceed to fill the vacancies according
to the provisions of this section.
(j) If an appointed election official fails to appear at the
polling place by forty-five minutes past five o'clock a. m. on
election day, the election officials present shall contact the
office of the clerk of the county commission for assistance in
filling the vacancy. The clerk shall proceed as follows:
(1) The clerk may attempt to contact the person originally
appointed, may assign an alternate nominated by the same political
party as the person absent if one is available or, if no alternate
is available, may appoint another eligible person;
(2) If the election officials present are unable to contact
the clerk within a reasonable time, they shall diligently attempt
to fill the position with an eligible person of the same political
party as the party that nominated the person absent until a qualified person has agreed to serve;
(3) If two teams of election officials, as defined in section
twenty-nine of this article, are present at the polling place, the
person appointed to fill a vacancy in the position of the
additional commissioner may be of either political party.
(k) In a municipal election, the recorder or other official
designated by charter or ordinance to perform election
responsibilities shall perform the duties of the clerk of the
county commission as provided in this section.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to mandate that party
executive committees are to submit their list of nominees to serve
as election officials no later than the seventieth day before the
election.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)