WEST virginia legislature
2016 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 4477
By Delegates Reynolds, McGeehan, Shaffer and Folk
[Introduced February 10,
2016; Referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §3‑1‑8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to recognition of a group as a political party; expanding the definition of political party to include an affiliation of voters who polled at least one percent of the vote for certain federal and state offices in the preceding election or has a certain number of registered voters.
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 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.
Any affiliation of voters
representing any principle or organization which, at the last preceding general
election, polled for its candidate for Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer,
Auditor, Attorney General, Commissioner of Agriculture, U.S. President, or U.S.
Senate at least one per cent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for that office in the state any
one of those aforementioned statewide or federal public offices, or any
affiliation of voters that register under article two, chapter three of this
code at least one tenth of one percent, but not less than one thousand in
number, of all voters registered as of the date of the last general election, shall be a
political party, within the meaning and
for the purpose of this chapter: Provided, That such political party status, once
achieved, shall take effect on the Wednesday immediately following the final
canvassing of the qualifying election and shall be valid through the next two
regular general election cycles. Failure of a qualified political party to
poll the one percent minimum for any statewide candidate in any intervening
special or midterm election shall not disqualify or remove any existing
political party status.
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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to expand the definition of political party to include an affiliation of voters who polled at least one percent of the vote for certain federal and state offices in the preceding election or has a certain number of registered voters.
Strike‑throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.