Senate Bill No. 644
(By Senator Minear)
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[Introduced February 23, 1998; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section thirty, article one, chapter
three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to elections;
providing for the appointment of no more than two students
per precinct to serve as poll clerks; and prescribing
qualifications that such students must meet.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirty, 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.
§3-1-30. Nomination and appointment of election officials and
alternates; notice of appointment; appointment to fill vacancies in election boards.
(a) For any primary, general or special election held
throughout a county, poll clerks and election commissioners may
be nominated as follows:
(1) The county executive committee for each of the two major
political parties may, by a majority vote of the committee at a
duly called meeting, nominate one qualified person for each team
of poll clerks and one qualified person for each team of election
commissioners to be appointed for the election;
(2) The appointing body shall select one qualified person as
the additional election commissioner for each board of election
officials;
(3) Each county executive committee may also nominate as
many qualified persons as alternates as there are precincts in
the county, which alternates may be called upon to serve in the
event any of the persons originally appointed fail to accept
appointment or fail to appear for the required training or for
the preparation or execution of their duties;
(4) When an executive committee nominates qualified persons
as poll clerks, election commissioners or alternates, the
committee, or its chairman or secretary on their behalf, shall
file in writing with the appointing body, no later than the
fifty-sixth day before the election, a list of those persons
nominated and the positions for which they are designated.
(b) For any municipal primary, general or special election,
the poll clerks and election commissioners may be nominated as
follows:
(1) In municipalities which have municipal executive
committees for the two major political parties in the
municipality, each such committee may nominate election officials
in the manner provided for the nomination of election officials
by county executive committees in subsection (a) of this section;
(2) In municipalities which do not have executive
committees, the governing body shall provide by ordinance for a
method of nominating election officials; or shall nominate as
many eligible persons as are required, giving due consideration
to any recommendations made by voters of the municipality or by
candidates on the ballot.
(c) The governing body responsible for appointing election
officials shall be:
(1) The county commission for any primary, general or
special election ordered by the county commission and any joint
county and municipal election;
(2) The board of education for any special election ordered
by the board of education conducted apart from any other
election;
(3) The municipal governing body for any primary, general or special municipal election ordered by the governing body.
(d) The appropriate governing body shall appoint the
election officials for each designated election board no later
than the forty-ninth day before the election as follows:
(1) Those eligible persons whose nominations for poll clerk
and election commissioner were timely filed by the executive
committees and those additional persons selected to serve as an
election commissioner shall be appointed;
(2) The governing body shall fill any positions for which no
nominations were filed.
(e) At the same time as the appointment of election
officials, or at a subsequent meeting, the governing body shall
appoint persons as alternates: Provided, That no alternate may
be eligible for compensation for election training unless the
alternate is subsequently appointed as an election official, or
is instructed to attend and actually attends training as an
alternate and, if called to do so, also serves at the polls on
election day. Alternates shall be appointed and serve as
follows:
(1) Those alternates nominated by the executive committees,
shall be appointed;
(2) The governing body may appoint additional alternates,
who may be called upon to fill vacancies after all alternates designated by the executive committees have been assigned, have
declined to serve or have failed to attend training; and
(3) The governing body may determine the number of persons
who may be instructed to attend training as alternates.
(f) The clerk of the county commission shall appoint
qualified persons to fill all vacancies existing after all
previously appointed alternates have been assigned, have declined
to serve or have failed to attend training.
(g) Within seven days following appointment, the clerk of
the county commission shall notify, by first-class mail, all
election commissioners, poll clerks and alternates of the fact of
their appointment, and include with such notice a response notice
form for the appointed person to return indicating whether or not
he or she agrees to serve in the specified capacity in the
election.
(h) The position of any person so notified of appointment
who fails to return the response notice or otherwise confirm to
the clerk of the county commission his or her agreement to serve
within fourteen days following the date of appointment shall be
considered vacant and the clerk shall proceed to fill the
vacancies according to the provisions of this section.
(i) If an appointed election official fails to appear at the
polling place by forty-five minutes past five o'clock a.m. on election day, the election officials present shall contact the
office of the clerk of the county commission for assistance in
filling the vacancy and the clerk shall proceed as follows:
(1) The clerk may attempt to contact the person originally
appointed, may assign an alternate of the same political party
as the person absent if one is available or, if no alternate is
available, may appoint another eligible person of the same
political party;
(2) If the election officials present are unable to contact
the clerk within a reasonable time, they shall diligently attempt
to fill the position with an eligible person of the same
political party as the person absent until a qualified person has
agreed to serve;
(3) If two teams of election officials, as defined in
section twenty-nine of this article, are present at the polling
place, the person appointed to fill a vacancy in the position of
the additional commissioner may be of either political party.
(j) In a municipal election, the recorder or other official
designated by charter or ordinance to perform election
responsibilities shall perform the duties of the clerk of the
county commission as provided in this section.
(k) In order to provide for a greater awareness of the
elections process, the rights and responsibilities of voters and the importance of participating in the electoral process, as well
as to provide additional poll clerks, an elections official may
appoint not more than two students per precinct to serve under
the direct supervision of precinct board members designated by
the elections official: Provided, That no student appointed
pursuant to this subsection may be used by a precinct board to
tally votes. A student may be appointed, notwithstanding lack of
eligibility to vote, subject to the approval of the board of the
educational institution in which the student is enrolled, if the
student possesses the following qualifications:
(1) Is at least sixteen years of age at the time of the
election to which he or she is serving as a member of a precinct
board;
(2) Is a United States citizen or will be a citizen at the
time of the election to which he or she is serving as a member of
a precinct board;
(3) Is a student in good standing attending a public or
private secondary educational institution; and
(4) Is a senior and has a grade point average of at least
2.5 on a 4.0 scale.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide for the
appointment of no more than two students per precinct to act as
poll clerks during primary, general and special elections.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.