MORGANTOWN – House Democrats unveiled a new, 55-page bill Tuesday aimed at updating and expanding election law.
“We’re here trying to make it easier for West Virginians to vote,” said lead sponsor John Doyle, D-Jefferson, during the virtual press conference. The bill, HB 2814, was introduced Tuesday.
It’s nicknamed the Election Security, Accessibility and Modernization Act, but isn’t officially called that, Doyle said, because it rewrites existing code and doesn’t create new code.
It spells out 16 major changes to election law. It extends early voting, requires drop boxes for mail-in voting, and extends the canvassing period from five to 12 days to allow for delays in ballot arrival. “We cannot presume the mail service will be fixed by 2022,” Doyle said.
It also includes no-excuse absentee voting for all, mailing absentee ballot applications to all eligible voters, a prohibition against canceling voter registration for failure to vote and a criminal penalty for filling out another person’s ballot without their consent.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, worked with Doyle over the summer to craft the bill, they said.
The 2020 pandemic led to experimental measures from the secretary of state’s office, Hansen said, that resulted in an unprecedented high voter turnout via absentee ballots and long lines at the polls. But there was no increase in election fraud.
So they felt they could codify the new measures and go a bit further to allow everyone even more secure elections and greater access, he said. “It’ll help everybody. It will help our democracy because we’ll have greater participation.”
Minority Leader Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, said, “This is a major piece of legislation.” They are calling on the majority Republicans to place it on a committee agenda and bring the bill to a vote.
The bill has been referenced to Judiciary and Doyle said he’ll be talking to chair , Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, to get it on an agenda.
During his tenure, he said, he’s been in the majority and the minority and he knows how the system works. So he’s even willing to take his name off the bill if a Republican wants to be lead sponsor.
Skaff said they’ve asked the secretary of state for a fiscal note for the bill and the office is working on it. A member of the office was part of the press conference audience and The Dominion Post asked if the sponsors had buy-in on the bill from the office.
Doyle said the gave the office a heads-up on the bill and sought its opinion on the bill’s provisions, but didn’t request buy-in.
Later in the day, Secretary of State Mac Warner issued a statement on the bill. He said Doyle shared the bill with them on Monday so they haven’t had a chance to review all of its provisions.
The November General Election, Warner said, had the second-highest voter turnout in state history: 802,726 ballots cast; the highest turnout was the 1960 presidential election, with 837,781 ballots cast.
Warner said, “Maintaining confidence in our election process will always be our highest priority. West Virginia’s county clerks administered a safe and secure election by keeping integrity at the forefront of their 2020 election administration. We look forward to reviewing and discussing every legislative proposal that seeks to modify election processes to ensure that West Virginia maintains the level of excellence we had in 2020.”
Skaff noted that Warner recently announced that Republicans now outnumber Democrats among registered voters. So it’s not a D or an R issue, he said, but a West Virginia voter issue.
Other local co-sponsors are Mon County Delegates Barbara Evans Fleischauer and Danielle Walker.
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