Senate Bill No. 541
(By Senator Sprouse)
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[Introduced March 21, 2001; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen, article one, chapter
three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact section
twenty-one, article five of said chapter, all relating to
providing that West Virginia's electoral college votes shall
be proportionally awarded to the presidential candidate
receiving the most votes in each congressional district, with
two at-large electoral votes going to the presidential
candidate receiving the most votes statewide.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen, article one, chapter three of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that section twenty-one, article five of said chapter be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS.
§3-1-14. Presidential electors; how chosen; duties; vacancies;
compensation.
Electors of president and vice president of the United States
shall be nominated as provided in section twenty-one of article
five of this chapter but their names shall be omitted from the
general election ballot, as provided in section two of article six
of this chapter, to be voted on the Tuesday next after the first
Monday in November in the year nineteen hundred and one thousand
nine hundred sixty-four and every fourth year thereafter.
The presidential electors shall meet in the office of the
governor at the capital capitol of this state, on the day now
appointed, or which shall hereafter be appointed, by the Congress
of the United States and vote for the president and for the vice
president of the United States in the manner prescribed by the
constitution and the laws of the United States. A presidential
elector representing a congressional district shall cast his or her
vote for the presidential candidate receiving the most votes in
that congressional district, and the at-large presidential
electors shall cast their votes for the presidential candidate
receiving the most votes throughout the state.
If any of the electors so chosen fail to attend at the time appointed, the
electors present shall appoint an elector in place of each one so
failing to attend, and every elector so appointed shall be entitled
to vote in the same manner as if he or she had been originally
chosen by the people.
Each presidential elector shall receive as compensation the
sum of ten dollars a day for attending such the meeting, including
the time spent in traveling to and from the place of meeting and in
addition thereto the sum of ten cents for every mile necessarily
traveled in going to and returning from the place of meeting, by
the most direct route.
ARTICLE 5. PRIMARY ELECTIONS AND NOMINATING PROCEDURES.
§3-5-21. Party conventions to nominate presidential electors;
candidates; organization; duties.
Candidates for presidential electors shall be nominated by the
delegated representatives of the political party assembled in a
state convention to be held during the months of June, July or
August next preceding any general election at which presidential
electors are to be elected. One presidential elector shall be
nominated from each congressional district in the state, and two
at-large presidential electors shall be nominated. The state
executive committee of the political party, by resolution, shall designate the place and fix the date of such the convention, shall
prescribe the number of delegates thereto, and shall apportion the
delegates among the several counties of the state in proportion to
the vote cast in the state for the party's candidate for governor
at the last preceding general election at which a governor was
elected. The state executive committee shall also ascertain and
designate all offices for which candidates are to be nominated at
such the
convention.
At least sixty days prior to the date fixed for holding any
state convention, the chairman of the party's state executive
committee shall cause to be delivered to the party's county
executive committee in each county of the state a copy of the
resolutions fixing the time and place for holding the state
convention and prescribing the number of delegates from each county
to the convention. Within ten days after receipt of the copy of
such the
resolutions, the party executive committee of each county
shall meet and, by resolution, shall apportion the delegates to the
state convention among the several magisterial districts of the
county, on a basis of the vote received in the county by the
candidate of the party for governor at the last preceding general
election at which a governor was elected, but in such an
apportionment of county delegates each magisterial district shall
be entitled to at least one delegate to such the
state convention.
The party's county executive committee shall call a meeting of the
members of the political party in mass convention in the several
magisterial districts of the county, which district meeting shall
be held at least thirty days prior to the date fixed for the state
convention and at which meeting the members of the political party
in each magisterial district shall elect the number of delegates to
which such the
district is entitled in the state convention.
The meeting place in the magisterial district shall be as
central and convenient as can reasonably be selected, and all
recognized members of the political party shall be entitled to
participate in any such mass convention and in the selection of
delegates. Notice of the time and place of holding the several
magisterial district mass conventions and of the person who shall
act as temporary chairman thereof shall be given by publication as
a Class II-O legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions
of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the
publication area for such the
publication shall be the county.
The first publication shall be made not more than fifteen days and
the second publication shall be made not less than five days prior to the date fixed for holding the convention. The notice published
shall specify the number of delegates which each magisterial
district in the county is entitled to elect to the state
convention.
Upon assembling, the mass convention of each magisterial
district shall choose a chairman and a secretary, who, within five
days after the holding of such the
convention, shall certify to the
chairman of the state executive committee of the political party
and the chairman of the county committee of the political party,
the names and addresses of the parties selected as delegates to the
state convention.
All contests over the selection of delegates to conventions
shall be heard and determined by the party executive committee of
the county from which the delegates are chosen, and such the
county
executive committee shall, upon written petition of any contest,
meet for such hearings and determinations within ten days after the
holding of such the
magisterial district mass convention. The
circuit court of the county and the supreme court of appeals of the
state shall have concurrent original jurisdiction to review, by
mandamus or other proper proceeding, the decision of a county
executive committee in any contest.
The delegates chosen and certified by and from the several
magisterial districts in the state, and, in the event of any
contest, those prevailing in the contest, shall make up the state
convention. The number present of those entitled to participate in
any convention shall cast the entire vote to which the county is
entitled in such the
convention, and it shall require a majority
vote to nominate any candidate for office.
All nominations made at state conventions shall be certified
within fifteen days thereafter, by the chairman and the secretary
of the convention, to the secretary of state, who shall certify
them to the clerk of the circuit court of each county concerned,
and the names of the persons so nominated shall be printed upon the
regular ballot to be voted at the ensuing general election, except
that the names of the presidential elector candidates shall may not
be printed thereon.
The delegates to any state convention may formulate and
promulgate such a party platform or declaration of party principles
as to them shall seem advisable.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to provide that West
Virginia's electoral college votes shall be proportionally awarded to the presidential candidate receiving the most votes in each
congressional district, with two at-large electoral votes going to
the presidential candidate receiving the most votes statewide.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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