Senate Bill No. 336
(By Senators Dittmar, Craigo, Chernenko and Anderson)
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[Introduced February 14, 1994; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section forty-one, article one,
chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to ballots of
election officials generally; and ensuring that the votes of
election officials are confidential.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section forty-one, article one, chapter three of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS.
§3-1-41. Challenged voter procedures; counting of challenged
voters' ballots; ballots of election officials.
It shall be the duty of the members of the receiving board,
jointly or severally, to challenge the right of any person
requesting a ballot to vote in any election, if such person's
registration record is not available at the time of the election,
or if the signature written by the person in the poll book does
not correspond with the signature purported to be his on the
registration record, or if the registration record of such personindicates any other legal disqualification.
Any person so challenged shall nevertheless be permitted to
vote in the election, but for that purpose he shall be furnished
an official ballot not endorsed by the poll clerks. In lieu of
such endorsements, the poll clerks shall fill and sign an
appropriate form indicating the challenge and the reason thereof,
and the name or names of the challengers. Such form shall be
securely attached to the voter's ballot and deposited together
with the ballot in a separate box or envelope marked "challenged
ballots."
The ballot of any voter so challenged shall not be counted
by the election officials. The county court commission shall, on
its own motion, at the time of canvassing of the election
returns, sit in session to determine the validity of such
challenges. If the county court commission shall determine
determines that the challenges are unfounded the ballot of each
challenged voter, if otherwise valid, shall be counted and
tallied together with the regular ballots cast in the election.
In such determinations the county court commission shall
disregard technical errors, omissions or oversights, if it can
reasonably be ascertained that the challenged voter was entitled
to vote.
Any person duly appointed as an election commissioner or
clerk under the provisions of section twenty-eight of this
article and who serves in such capacity in a precinct other than
the precinct in which such person is legally entitled to vote,may cast a challenged ballot in the precinct in which such person
is serving as a commissioner or clerk, and such ballot shall not
be deemed invalid for the sole reason of having been cast in a
precinct other than the precinct in which such person is legally
entitled to vote, vote in the precinct in which the person is
serving as a commissioner or clerk and the poll clerks shall fill
out and sign an appropriate form indicating the name or names and
signatures of the commissioners or clerks voting and securely
deposit the form in a separate envelope marked "Poll Worker's
Voting Record" and the county court commission shall record the
challenged ballot vote on the voter's permanent registration
record.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide for the
confidential handling of the votes of poll officials and poll
workers.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.