ENROLLED
H. B. 2686
(By Delegates Fleischauer, Buchanan and Beach)
[Passed April 12, 1997; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact section eleven, article three,
chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to authorizing
the clerks of the circuit courts to affix their signatures
on absentee ballots by facsimile.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eleven, article three, chapter three of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. VOTING BY ABSENTEES.
§3-3-11. Preparation, number and handling of absent voters' ballots.
Absent voters' ballots shall be in all respects like other
ballots. Not less than seventy days before the date on which any
primary, general or special election is to be held, unless a
lesser number of days is provided for in any specific election
law in which case the lesser number of days applies, the clerks
of the circuit courts of the several counties shall estimate and
determine the number of absent voters' ballots of all kinds which will be required in their respective counties for that election.
The ballots for the election of all officers, or the
ratification, acceptance or rejection of any measure, proposition
or other public question to be voted on by the voters, shall be
prepared and printed under the direction of the board of ballot
commissioners constituted as provided in article one of this
chapter. The several county boards of ballot commissioners shall
prepare and have printed, in the number they may determine,
absent voters' ballots that are to be printed under their
directions as hereinbefore provided, and those ballots shall be
delivered to the clerk of the circuit court of the county not
less than forty-two days before the day of the election at which
they are to be used. Before any ballot is mailed or delivered,
the clerk of the circuit court shall affix his or her official
seal and he or she and the other members of the board of ballot
commissioners shall place their signatures near the lower
left-hand corner on the back thereof. The clerks of the circuit
courts are authorized to have their signatures affixed by a
facsimile printed on the back of absentee ballots, by a facsimile
signature stamp, or by signing their original signatures. An
absent voter's ballot not containing the seal and signatures is
invalid and is subject to challenge by any election commissioner
or poll clerk.
The clerk of the circuit court shall be primarily responsible
for the preparation, mailing, receiving, delivering and otherwise
handling of all absent voters' ballots. He or she shall keep a
record, as may be prescribed by the secretary of state, of all ballots so delivered for the purpose of absentee voting, as well
as all ballots, if any, marked before him or her, and shall
deliver to the commissioner of election to whom the ballots for
the precinct are delivered and at the time of the delivery of
those ballots a certificate stating the number of ballots
delivered or mailed to absent voters, and those marked before him
or her, if any, and the names of the voters to whom those ballots
have been delivered or mailed, or by whom they have been marked,
if marked before him or her.