Senate Bill No. 530
(By Senators Kessler, McCabe, Minard, Foster and Plymale)
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[Introduced February 9, 2007; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §3-1-35 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §3-4A-20 of said
code, all relating to providing that a political party may
authorize a voter not affiliated with a political party or who
is not an adherent to any party appearing on the ballot in the
general election to vote in its party's primary.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §3-1-35 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that §3-4A-20 of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS.
§3-1-35. Ballots to be furnished voters.
In general and special elections the ballots for all voters of
an election precinct shall be the same. In primary elections the
ballot of the voter's political party at that election in that
precinct shall be furnished to the voter together with separate
ballots, if any, on any nonpartisan candidates and any public
questions submitted to the voters generally at such primary election. In the event the voter is lawfully registered as
"independent" or as an adherent of a political party not appearing
on any primary election ballot to be voted in his precinct, he
shall not, in a primary election, be given or entitled to vote any
party ballot but shall be furnished any separate ballots to be
voted thereat on nonpartisan candidates and public questions:
Provided, That a political party may authorize any voter who is not
affiliated with any other political party or who is not an adherent
of a political party appearing on the ballot to be voted in the
next general election permission to vote its party's primary
ballot.
ARTICLE 4A. ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS.
§3-4A-20. "Independent" voting in primary elections.
If at any primary elections nonpartisan candidates for office
and public questions are submitted to the voters on which persons
registered as "independent" are entitled to vote, as provided in
section eighteen, article two of this chapter, the election
officers shall provide a vote recording device, where applicable,
or the appropriate ballot to be marked by an electronically
sensible pen or ink, or by means of a stylus or by means of touch,
so that "independent" voters may vote only those portions of the
ballot relating to the nonpartisan candidates and the public
questions submitted or shall provide a ballot containing only
provisions for voting for those candidates and upon those issues
submitted common to the ballots provided to all voters regardless
of political party affiliation, or both:
Provided, That a
political party may authorize any voter who is not affiliated with any other political party or who is not an adherent of a political
party appearing on the ballot to be voted in the next general
election permission to vote in its party's primary ballot.
In counties utilizing electronic voting systems in which votes
are recorded by perforating, if vote recording devices are not
available for the "independent" voters, provisions are to be made
for sealing the partisan section or sections of the ballot or
ballot labels on a vote recording device using temporary seals,
thus permitting the independent voter to vote for the nonpartisan
section or sections of the ballot or ballot labels. After the
"independent" voter has voted, the temporary seals may be removed
and the device may then be used by partisan voters.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that a
political party may authorize a voter not affiliated with a
political party or who is not an adherent to any party appearing on
the ballot in the general election, to vote in its party's primary.
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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