Pre-paid postage cards being mailed to help update voter registrations

Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
Updated ·4 min read

Dec. 9—PRINCETON — Primaries and a presidential election are coming in 2024, so registered voters across West Virginia will soon start getting pre-paid cards in the mail which will help them make sure their party affiliations are accurate and their registrations are up to date.

County clerks regularly check voter rolls, Mercer County Clerk Verlin Moye said Friday.

"We always do that," Moye said. "We're always doing that. It's constant, especially before a presidential election."

Moye said people who get the pre-paid voter card in their mail should use it.

"I would just go ahead and send it in so everything's accurate. That way, we'll verify our records as best we can. We check obituaries, death certificates and remove people. We're constantly looking at our rolls. That's part of it," he said.

The West Virginia Secretary of State's Office is also working to make sure voter rolls are updated.

By working closely with all 55 county clerks to provide the tools necessary to operate a uniform, non-partisan voter registration list maintenance process, over 400,000 deceased, duplicate, out-of-state, convicted-felon voter, or otherwise ineligible registration files have been removed from the Statewide Voter Registration System since the 2016 election, as indicated by the most recent Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), Secretary of State Mac Warner said Friday. At the same time, more than 333,000 new voters have been registered to vote, which includes more than 100,000 high school students.

Over 109,000 instances of possible abandoned voter registrations in West Virginia have been identified by an updated address comparison with the United States Postal Service (USPS), the WV Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), or by official election mail that was returned as undeliverable, according to the Secretary of State's Office. These addresses will soon receive an important confirmation postcard from their county clerk's office.

"West Virginia and federal laws require election officials to send a postcard to each address of a voter who is identified as possibly abandoning their registration. These voters were identified when they provided a newer address to the USPS, DMV , or when official election mail was returned which indicated a voter may have moved," Warner said. "If the voter moved to another West Virginia county, we can help them update their registration," Warner continued. "If they moved out of state, they are no longer eligible to vote and we encourage them to cancel their voter registration."

These postcards are expected to arrive in voters' mailboxes in the coming weeks. The postcard asks the voter to confirm that they are still a resident of the state and county at the address on their voter registration record.

Moye said residents wanting to vote during the May 14, 2024 primary should make sure their party affiliation is correct.

"It will be important this coming primary that they are registered the way they think they are registered," Moye said. "If they are Republican or Democrat or independent or no party, they need to verify their party affiliation. In the primary, they have to vote the ballot of whatever party they're affiliated with. If they're a no party or independent, they have to request which ballot (Republican or Democrat) they want to vote. They can't vote both sides on the primary. They have to pick one."

Voters can also check and update their registration information online at ovr.sos.wv.gov, or by returning the pre-paid postage postcard to their county clerk.

Warner encouraged every voter who receives the confirmation postcard to confirm that they reside at the address on file or update the address by scanning the QR code on the postcard with a mobile device and follow the easy steps to keep their registration in "active" status.

Regular maintenance on voter registration lists is mandated by the National Voter Registration Act and West Virginia law. Voters who confirm their address by returning a postcard will remain "active."

Voters whose postcards are not returned, or are returned by the USPS as "undeliverable," will be categorized as "inactive." Voters who are "inactive" still remain eligible to vote in the next two federal election cycles. However, if a voter's registration address remains unconfirmed for the next two federal general elections after receipt of the confirmation notice, and the voter fails to vote in any state or local election during that time period, state law mandates that the registration be canceled, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

"The law is in place to make sure voters on West Virginia's voter registration rolls are still residents of West Virginia at the address on file with their county clerk. Many times, we find that these voters moved and simply forgot to cancel their registration," Warner said.

For more information, contact the county clerk or the WV Secretary of State's Office at 304-558-6000. In Mercer County, the Voter Registration Office can be reached at 304-487-8339. In McDowell County, the county clerk's number is 304-436-8517

"We'll get quite a few corrections and changes," Moye said. "We try to nail them down anyway."

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com