MORGANTOWN – The Legislature is taking another crack at aligning municipal election dates with statewide primary and general elections.
The prior two efforts began and died in the House of Delegates. This one is in the Senate, in SB 50. Senate Judiciary amended and approved it on Monday and sent it to the full Senate.
The reasoning behind the repeated efforts, legislators have said, is to save municipalities money and boost voter turnout.
The version the committee took up would have required municipalities that hold elections on other dates to make the change by July 1, 2026.
Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, is the city attorney for Wellsburg and questioned if this would be possible. There are two ways cities can make the change: by ordinance or by amending their charter. Given that voters must approve a charter change, he said, it’s possible that this could fail and the city would find itself in violation of state code.
Susan Economou, executive director of the West Virginia Municipal League, agreed that the timing posed a problem. Further complicating it would be voting precincts that cross outside city boundaries.
She suggested July 1, 2029, as the earliest practical date.
Secretary of State General Counsel David Cook also agreed, noting that state code doesn’t offer a process for what would happen if a city fails to pass an ordinance or charter amendment to change the date.
With all that in mind, the committee amended the bill to require municipalities to change their charter or pass an ordinance to align their election dates with statewide primary or general election dates by July 1, 2030. It requires municipalities to negotiate with counties regarding logistics and costs.
Locally, Granville voters chose last November to align their election dates with county dates starting in May 2026. Star City and Westover elections were held in conjunction with the county starting in May 2024.
But for Morgantown, last October, City Council voted against giving the choice of election dates to city voters. An ordinance to place that proposed charter change on the city’s April 29, 2025, ballot failed on first reading.
As reported at the time, arguments for and against the move were pretty much on par with what they’ve been historically. On one side, moving onto the county ballot would likely increase voter participation and save the city money. But opponents feared the city election would become lost in a list of state and national races and potentially mired in partisan politics.
