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EARLY VOTING BY MAIL PROGRAM PROPOSED RULES
ONLINE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
The proposed rules for the Vote By Mail Pilot
Program are available for public comment on the Secretary of
State’s website at www.wvsos.com.
The program is divided into two phases. To see both phases of
the proposed rules, click
here
and
here.
The legislation to allow municipalities to participate in the
Vote By Mail Pilot Program passed during the 2009 Legislative
Session (HB
3134).
The proposed rule for Phase One says each Class IV municipality
(fewer than 2,000 people) wishing to conduct early voting by
mail instead of in person must adopt an ordinance expressing
that intent. The municipality must then notify the Secretary of
State’s office no later than January 31 of the year of the
election. Municipal election officials would then be required to
attend training provided by the Secretary of State’s Office.
The proposed rule for Phase One also lays out how municipalities
must notify voters. Notice must be mailed to every registered
voter in the municipality no more than four weeks or less than
two weeks before the start of the early voting period. The
proposed rule also says how the voter should package his or her
vote to be sent back to the election officials and when that
ballot is due.
According to the new law, any Class IV municipality that wishes
to conduct early voting by mail may do so, provided they follow
the guidelines laid out in the proposed rule for Phase One.
The proposed rule for Phase Two of Vote by Mail outlines the
process for selecting up to five municipalities of any class to
conduct their entire election by mail.
In that process, the interested municipalities would be required
to submit certain information to the Secretary of State’s Office
to be considered for the program. That information includes how
they plan on handling ballot security, ballot drop boxes, and
historical election information including turnout and cost.
The historical data will be used for comparison of data from
pilot program elections to determine the program’s success.
Also according to the proposed rule for Phase Two, if more than
five municipalities meet the requirements for conducting their
entire election by mail, the five municipalities that will be
permitted to take part in the program will be chosen at random.
If fewer than five municipalities meet the requirements, they
will all be permitted to take part in the program.
The public comment period for this proposed rule ends July 27.
Then, Secretary Tennant and the Elections Division will take
into consideration all public comments, make necessary changes,
and file an Agency Approved Rule before July 31. That rule will
go to the Legislative Rule Review Committee, a joint committee
made up of State Senators and Delegates. That committee will
introduce the rule in the Senate and House no later than the
twentieth day of the regular session. The rule will then proceed
through the legislative process, and can be amended by Senators
and Delegates.
TENNANT TALKS SATELLITE PRECINCT RULES WITH
KANAWHA COUNTY COMMISSION
Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant
discussed the proposed rules for the recently passed Satellite
Precinct Bill (House Bill 2464) with members of the Kanawha
County Commission Thursday in Charleston.
Commission President W. Kent Carper and Commissioner Dave Hardy
along with Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick engaged in the
open forum, discussing issues such as placement of the satellite
precincts and how much the operations would cost.
Carper and Hardy both vowed that Kanawha County, which is by far
the largest county by population in the State of West Virginia,
would be one of the first counties to offer satellite precincts
for early voting.
One issue the Commission raised was how to keep from favoring
one political party over the other. But Tennant said there is
language in the bill that would keep that from happening.
“The location of any satellite precinct for early voting has to
be approved by four entities,” Tennant said. “Those entities are
the county commission, the county clerk’s office, and the
chairpersons of the two political parties in the county. It is
the goal of my office to make this as fair as possible. Because
in the end, it’s the voter who will benefit by having a more
accessible location to cast their early ballot.”
The proposed rule has been filed with the Secretary of State’s
Administrative Law Division. The proposed rules are now up for
public comment until July 20.
NUMBER OF ONLINE ANNUAL REPORT FILINGS HITS
RECORD HIGH
Secretary of
State Natalie E. Tennant has announced the number of business
owners filing their annual reports online has hit a record high.
As of June 5, the Secretary of State’s office had
received 9.358 online annual report filings through the website
www.business4wv.com. This is an increase of more than 2,000
from this time last year.
Any limited liability companies (LLC),
professional limited liability companies (PLLC), or corporations
authorized to transact business in the State of West Virginia
must file an annual report each year with the Secretary of
State’s office. The deadline for LLC’s and PLLC’s to file online
without having to pay a late fee was June 1. This is the first
year online filing has been available for corporations and more
than 3,500 of those reports have been received by the Secretary
of State’s office.
Online filing saves time and provides immediate
and accurate integration of customers’ updates into the
Secretary of State’s database. Filers will receive electronic
confirmation when the Secretary of State’s Office accepts the
filing.
“Filing online means business owners can focus on
product and not paperwork,” Tennant said. “And the best thing
about filing online is that you can do it anytime.
Business4wv.com is up 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And
your information is instantly entered into our database. There’s
no delay in waiting for the information to be mailed to
Charleston, and then another delay in being one of the thousands
of reports we enter manually. Filing online saves everyone time
and money.”
More than 50,000 business owners filed their
reports by mailing them to the Secretary of State’s office.
The number of LLC and PLLC owners filing annual
reports online has steadily increased over the past four years.
1,873 reports were filed online in 2005; 3,008 in 2006; 3,949 in
2007; and 5,150 in 2008. The Secretary of State’s office has
already received 5,685 online filings in 2009.
In addition to
annual reports, more than 1,600 new businesses have filed
registration papers online this year.
View effective Code of State Rules in two formats; proposed
rules open for comment; proposed emergency rules; current
State Register and meeting notices
A new program
which allows candidates and committees to keep online
campaign finance files which may be submitted electronically
through the Secretary of State’s website.
