Secretary of State Mac Warner wants to remind registered voters in nearly half of the cities and towns across the state to vote on Tuesday, June 13th.
According to Warner, 131 of the state’s 232 municipalities have hosted or will host elections in 2017. Of those, 101 municipalities will have elections on Tuesday (see attachment here).
Municipal elections are taking place in 48 of the state’s 55 counties. Ballots differ from community to community, but voters are being asked to elect mayors, clerks, recorders and/or council members.
“It’s so important that voters get out and vote,” Secretary Warner said.
According to the Secretary of State’s Elections Division, most municipalities experience less than a 20 percent voter turnout. “We can do so much better than that. Exercising your right to vote is fundamental responsibility of every American citizen,” Warner said.
Warner said that he is proud of his office’s success in cleaning up the state’s voter files. Removing outdated, deceased and duplicate voter files helps cities and counties demonstrate an increase in overall voter turnout. Since Secretary Warner took office on January 16th, there have been 60,808 voter files removed from the county registration lists.
Secretary Warner is also proud that an historic number of new voters are registering all across the state. Since January 16th, a total of 16,482 West Virginia residents have registered to vote. That’s an unusually high number of new voter registrations in a year with no county, state or national elections, and Warner points out that there is still six months left in the calendar year.
“These new registrations are from real live voters who are concerned about their communities, their state and their country. I’m working with county clerks all over West Virginia to increase voter confidence in our election process. It appears our hard work is paying off,” Warner said.
Of the 16,482 newly registered voters in West Virginia, nearly 1,200 of them are high school students.
Most municipal polling places are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. However, some municipalities have shorter hours. Secretary Warner encourages voters to contact their city hall for an accurate list of times that the polls will be open in that municipality.
The Secretary of State’s Election Division has assembled a team of 17 staff members, administrators and investigators to try to visit all 101 municipalities hosting elections on Tuesday. All election complaints or concerns can be reported to the Elections Division by calling toll-free at 1-800-SOS-VOTE.
