WEST virginia Legislature

2016 regular session

Introduced

Senate Bill 142

By Senators Woelfel, Takubo, Romano, Plymale and Facemire

[Introduced January 13, 2016;
Referred to the Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Judiciary.]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §3-2-2a, relating to registration of voters; automatically registering high school graduates to vote; authorizing Secretary of State to create a form to facilitate registration; requiring county superintendent of schools or private school administrator to submit certain information to the clerk of the county commission in order to facilitate registration; and setting forth the process that each county clerk shall follow in order to process the forms received.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §3-2-2a, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 2.  REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.

§3-2-2a.  Automatic registration of eligible high school graduates.

Any person who is eligible to register to vote pursuant to section two of this article and graduates from a public or private high school in West Virginia on or after the effective date of this section shall be registered to vote as part of the graduation proceedings, in accordance with this section.  The Secretary of State is authorized to create a form to facilitate the registration and shall distribute the form annually to each county superintendent of schools and each private school administrator.  The county superintendent of schools, or his or her designee, in each county, and the school administrator at each private school shall submit to the clerk of the relevant county the form created by the Secretary of State containing each student’s name, address, date of birth, phone number, and other identifying information required by the Secretary of State’s office.  The clerk of the county shall review the forms and determine whether any person submitted is not currently registered to vote and, for each person not currently registered, the clerk of the county shall register the person to vote if the clerk of the county determines the person is eligible.  The clerk of the county shall send a letter to each person who becomes registered to vote pursuant to this section, advising the person that he or she is now registered to vote without any political party affiliation and informing the newly registered person of the option and process to designate a political party affiliation.  If the clerk of the county determines that any unregistered person whose name is submitted pursuant to this section is not eligible to be registered, the clerk of the county shall send the person a letter informing him or her that he or she is not eligible to register, stating the reasons why, and explaining what corrective action could be taken to register to vote.  If the clerk of the county determines that a person listed on the form is already registered to vote, then the clerk shall take no action.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to register all eligible new high school graduates to vote.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.