WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on the Judiciary.
A BILL to amend and
reenact §3-1-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, and to amend and reenact §3-2-5
of said code; all relating to the criteria for political party status; allowing
a group of affiliated voters to become a recognized political party if the
group’s candidate receives one percent of the votes in an election for any one
of six statewide offices, including that of Governor, Secretary of State,
Treasurer, Auditor, Attorney General or Commissioner of Agriculture; allowing a
group of affiliated voters to become a recognized political party if five
thousand or more individuals have identified as members of the group on their
current voter registration forms; and requiring voting registration forms to
provide a space for individuals who do not select a political party affiliation
to write the name of a group of affiliated voters to which they belong.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That §3-1-8 of the
Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, and that §3-2-5
of said code, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL
PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS.
§3-1-8. Political party
defined; parties or groups that may participate in municipal primary elections.
(a) Any affiliation of voters representing any principle
or organization shall be a political party, within the meaning and for the
purpose of this chapter which if, at the last preceding
general election, the affiliation polled for its candidate for
Governor at least one per cent of the total number of votes cast for all
candidates for that office in the state, shall be a political party, within
the meaning and for the purpose of this chapter at least one of the
following state offices:
(1) Governor;
(2) Secretary of State;
(3) Attorney General;
(4) State Treasurer;
(5) State Auditor; or
(6) Commissioner of
Agriculture.
(b) Regardless of
whether an affiliation of voters meets the requirements of subsection (a) of
this section, any affiliation of voters representing any principle or
organization shall be a political party, within the meaning and for the purpose
of this chapter, if at least five thousand voters in the state are registered
to vote as a member of the affiliation.
(c) Provided, That Notwithstanding
the foregoing provisions of this section, the governing body of any municipality
may, by ordinance adopted by the affirmative vote of at least three fourths of
the members of such governing body by recorded vote, provide that municipal
political parties or groups within such municipality that do not meet the
requirements of this section for classification as a political party may
participate in the primary elections of any such municipality. Any such
ordinance shall contain provisions implementing the foregoing proviso, which
implementing provisions shall conform as nearly as practicable to any general
provisions of law relating to municipal primary elections.
Article 2. Registration
of Voters.
§3-2-5. Forms for
application for registration; information required and requested; types of
application forms; notices.
(a) (1) All state forms for
application for voter registration shall be prescribed by the Secretary of
State and shall conform with the requirements of 42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq.,
the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the requirements of the
provisions of this article. Separate application forms may be prescribed for
voter registration conducted by the clerk of the county commission,
registration by mail, registration in conjunction with an application for motor
vehicle driver's license and registration at designated agencies. These forms
may consist of one or more parts, may be combined with other forms for use in
registration by designated agencies or in conjunction with driver licensing and
may be revised and reissued as required by the Secretary of State to provide
for the efficient administration of voter registration.
(2) Notwithstanding any
provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection to the contrary, the federal
postcard application for voter registration issued pursuant to 42 U. S. C.§1973,
et seq., the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986
and the mail voter registration application form prescribed by the Federal
Election Commission pursuant to 42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq., the
National Voter Registration Act of 1993, are accepted as valid forms of
application for registration pursuant to the provisions of this article.
(3) The Secretary of State
is authorized to promulgate procedures to permit persons to register to vote
through a secure electronic voter registration system.
(b) Each application form
for registration shall include:
(1) A statement specifying
the eligibility requirements for registration and an attestation that the
applicant meets each eligibility requirement;
(2) Any specific notice or
notices required for a specific type or use of application by 42 U. S. C. §1973gg,
et seq., the National Voter Registration Act of 1993;
(3) A notice that a voter
may be permitted to vote the partisan primary election ballot of a political
party only if the voter has designated that political party on the application
for registration unless the political party has determined otherwise;
(4) The applicant's
driver's license number or an identification number issued by the Division of
Motor Vehicles. If the applicant does not have a driver's license or an
identification card issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles, then the last
four digits of the applicant's Social Security number; and
(5) Any other instructions
or information essential to complete the application process.
(c) Each application form
shall require that the following be provided by the applicant, under oath, and
an application which does not contain each of the following is incomplete:
(1) The applicant's legal
name, including the first name, middle or premarital name, if any, and last
name;
(2) The month, day and year
of the applicant's birth;
(3) The applicant's
residence address including the number and street or route and city and county
of residence except:
(A) In the case of a person
eligible to register under the provisions of 42 U. S. C. §1973ff, et seq.,
the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the address at which
he or she last resided before leaving the United States or entering the
uniformed services, or if a dependent child of such a person, the address at
which his or her parent last resided;
(B) In the case of a
homeless person having no fixed residence address who nevertheless resides and
remains regularly within the county, the address of a shelter, assistance
center or family member with whom he or she has regular contact or other
specific location approved by the clerk of the county commission for the
purposes of establishing a voting residence; or
(C) In the case of a
participant in the Address Confidentiality Program administered by the Secretary
of State in accordance with section one hundred three, article twenty-eight
(a), chapter forty-eight of this code, the designated address assigned to the
participant by the Secretary of State; and
(4) The applicant's
signature, under penalty of perjury as provided in section thirty-six of this
article, to the attestation of eligibility to register to vote and to the truth
of the information given. The clerk may accept the electronically transmitted
signature kept on file with another approved state database for an applicant
who applies to register to vote using an approved electronic voter registration
system in accordance with procedures promulgated by the Secretary of State.
(d) The applicant shall be
requested to provide the following information but no application may be
rejected for lack of this information:
(1) An indication whether
the application is for a new registration, change of address, change of name or
change of party affiliation;
(2) The applicant's choice
of political party affiliation, if any, or an indication of no affiliation. An
applicant who does not enter a choice of political party affiliation is listed
as having no party affiliation on the voting record;
(3) In the case of an
applicant who has not indicated a political party affiliation, the name of a
group of affiliated voters to which an applicant belongs.
(3)(4) The
applicant's residence mailing address if different than the residence street
address;
(4)(5) The last
four digits of the applicant's Social Security number;
(5)(6) The applicant's telephone number;
(6)(7) The applicant's
e-mail address;
(7)(8) The address where the applicant was last
registered to vote, if any, for the purpose of canceling or transferring the
previous registration; and
(8)(9) The applicant's gender.
(e) The Secretary of State
shall prescribe the printing specifications of each type of voter registration
application and the voter registration application portion of any form which is
part of a combined agency form.
(f) Application forms
prescribed in this section may refer to various public officials by title or
official position but in no case may the actual name of an officeholder be
printed on the voter registration application or on any portion of a combined
application form.
(g) No later than July 1 of
each odd-numbered year, the Secretary of State shall submit the specifications
of the voter registration application by mail for statewide bidding for a
contract period beginning September 1 of each odd-numbered year and continuing
for two calendar years. The successful bidder shall produce and supply the
required mail voter registration forms at the contract price to all purchasers
of the form for the period of the contract.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to allow a group to become a recognized political party if the group’s
candidate receives one percent of the votes in an election for any one of six
statewide offices, including that of Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer,
Auditor, Attorney General or Commissioner of Agriculture; to allow a group of
affiliated voters to become a recognized political party if five thousand or
more individuals have identified as a member of the group on their current
voter registration forms; and to require voting registration forms to provide a
space for individuals who do not select a political party affiliation to write
the name of a group of affiliated of voters to which they belong.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.